Publications
Military and Strategic Affairs, Volume 7, No. 1, March 2015

The success of the Islamic State (ISIS) includes the integration of interrelated elements in a way that helps the organization consolidate its control of extensive regions, serve as the current spearhead in the global Jihad effort, and threaten the world with terrorist attacks carried out by its agents holding citizenship in a Western country. These agents are liable to return to their homeland and along with “lone wolves” they are liable to carry out terrorist attacks against targets in the West. The aim of this article is to examine ISIS’s model, as it is an organization that has successfully conquered many geographic areas while attracting public attention on an unprecedented global scale. The article will attempt to assess the organization’s unique strategy, which combines two key interrelated elements: extensive use of the social media on the one hand and extreme and savage cruelty on the other.
The opinions expressed in INSS publications are the authors’ alone.
Publication Series
Military and Strategic Affairs