Brian L. Steed
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Must Read Articles on ISIS

Start Here:

If you only have time to read a handful of articles on this topic, read the first six articles listed here. They are excellent resources for understanding ISIS.
​

What ISIS Really Wants

Graeme Wood
​AP/The Atlantic
​March 2015

The single best article to read to understand ISIS.  This is critical as Graeme Wood explain ISIS in their words, so to speak, and from their perspective.  It is about religion and about calm rationality.  These are not a bunch of nihilistic crazies seeking to watch the world burn.  Start any reading about ISIS with this article.
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The Terror Strategist: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State

Christoph Reuter
​Spiegel Online
​18 April 2015

After reading Graeme Wood’s article “What ISIS Really Wants” then you need to read this article.  Here one reads the secular perspective of ISIS, its organization and its motivations.  I disagree with the implications in this article – that ISIS uses religion as a façade rather than as a serious foundation for its actions.  Despite my disagreement, this is a popular perspective on the group and their motivations.  It is a must read.
​

How Raqqa Became the Capital of ISIS: A Proxy Warfare Case Study

Nate Rosenblatt and David Kilcullen
New America
Arizona State University
26 July 2019

The best article on ISIS actions since Christophe Reuters article in 2015.  The first several sections are a must read for understanding the processes by which ISIS gained control of a large city with only limited means.  This is a primer on what weak actors will try to do with respect to developing violence potential.

The ISIS Files

Rukmini Callimachi
The New York Times
​4 April 2018

Rukmini Callimachi is one of the best reporters in the main stream media on ISIS.  This article is another example of her great reporting.  The details in both documentation and interviews provides great insight into how ISIS governed and how they controlled the population.  This is the most insightful ISIS article I have read since Graeme Wood’s March 2015 article, “What ISIS Really Wants.”

Wanted Dead or Alive: The Frustrating, Failing Hunt for ISIS Leader Baghdadi

Anne Speckhard and Ardian Shajkovci
​The Daily Beast
​6 January 2018

This is a fabulous article providing a good summary of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s life and significance to ISIS.  The article raises several key issues including the importance of the caliph, the strength of the ideological utopian vision, the resiliency of ISIS, and the problem with coalition mathematics.  With regard to the last point, the standard number for ISIS fighters seems to have been 30,000.  That number has been pretty consistent throughout the fighting regardless of reported inflicted casualties.  In this article, the authors say that 6,000-20,000 ISIS fighters having melted into the Iraqi and Syrian populations.  The spread and the shear size of the numbers communicate the ignorance that we still have with respect to this fight.
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ISIS: the inside story

Martin Chulov
The Guardian
11 December 2014

An excellent article on the origins of ISIS.

Recommended Articles
on
​ISIS

Additional articles are not listed in any particular order. All are recommended for an improved understanding of the topic.​

Caliphate

Rukmini Callimachi
20 September 2018
The New York Times

I am a huge fan of Rukmini Callimachi.  She does a fantastic job of communicating the ISIS perspective.  This series explains her journey to understand ISIS and the journey of ISIS simultaneously.  She explains ISIS through the figures of several people with whom she personally interacts.  


This is absolutely worth listening to more so than reading, however, the collection of material is essential to consume.

There are twelve parts including the prologue and a two-part chapter nine. Click on the links below to access transcripts for each chapter. 
  • Prologue: The Mission​
  • Chapter 1: The Reporter
  • Chapter 2: Recruitment
  • Chapter 3: The Arrival​
  • ​Chapter 4: Us vs. Them
  • Chapter 5: The Heart
  • Chapter 6: Paper Trail
  • Chapter 7: Mosul
  • Chapter 8: The Briefcase
  • Chapter 9: Prisoners, Part 1
  • Chapter 9: Prisoners, Part 2
  • Chapter 10: One Year Later

Click here to access the Caliphate podcast.

Iraq's Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge

Ben Taub
The New Yorker
24 & 31 December 2018

This is long, but very important to read.  This a fantastically depressing article.  As I have participated in and observed the fighting against ISIS, there was always a deep fear that the antidote for ISIS would spawn the next round of violent extremism in Mesopotamia.  This article gives support to that fear.

The way a force wins a war can determine how soon and how violent will be the next war.  It seems like some are seeking to destroy ISIS through the worst methods possible.  This will only work if they kill enough such that no similar group will ever return.  Based on this article, that does not seem to be the case.  Instead, more are being humiliated than are being killed.  Such actions may haunt Iraq for decades to come.

The Case of the Purloined Poultry: How ISIS Prosecuted Petty Crime

Rukmini Callimachi
The New York Times
1 July 2018

Rukmini Callimachi has provided some of the best reporting on ISIS over the last year.  This article is another excellent example of her work.  She has shown the complexity of life in the ISIS caliphate.  The people living under ISIS governance were not making a choice between a Western Utopia and Mad Max Fury Road.  In many ways ISIS provided greater stability and predictability for residents than did the state leadership it replaced.  This is important in expressing some of what needs to be done for opponents of ISIS to provide a better alternative.  It isn't enough to kill ISIS and drive them out.  The new governance needs to be at least as honest and just as was the caliphate.  That may sound like a low bar, but unfortunately it has proven to be harder to clear than many think.  Rukmini Callimachi's reporting is critical to gaining an understanding of life in the caliphate so that current state leaders know the actual height of the bar that they have to clear.

Defeating the ISIS Nostalgia Narrative

Colin P. Clarke and Haroro J. Ingram
Foreign Policy Research Institute
18 April 2018
​
The authors express the danger of almost defeating ISIS.  They warn that this group is not defeated and that their ideology and narrative are still resonant in the region.  This is one of the best articles to refute the notion that fighting ISIS or any similar group is about killing bad guys and targeting leaders.

How ISIS Produced Its Cruel Arsenal on an Industrial Scale

John Ismay, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, and C.J. Chivers
The New York Times
10 December 2017


This article on the Islamic State weapons manufacturing system deserves serious consideration.  It explains yet another way in which ISIS was and is different from other terrorist or extremist groups.

The Real Lessons of Mosul (and Sixteen Years of War in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria)

Anthony H. Cordesman
Center for Strategic & International Studies
19 July 2017


Tony Cordesman has been providing useful analysis of conflict for decades.  This is about seven pages long but it captures the most significant failures of the last sixteen years.  Those failures can be summarized in a single word: strategy.  In this case, a lack thereof.  This is a must read before one begins the process of writing lessons learned.

How ISIS Survives the Fall of Mosul

Charlie Winter
The Atlantic
3 July 2017

The author asserts that the loss of Mosul was part of the ISIS plan all along – to antagonize the world such that it could dominate the jihadist narrative.

Anbar's Illusions: The Failure of Iraq's Success Story

Carter Malkasian
Foreign Affairs 
4 June 2017


This is the best summary of the Awakening or the results of The Surge that one can read in seven pages.  The author has some conclusions with respect to the value of committing forces and resources to counter-insurgency that I do not agree with, however, this is a must read article.

Foundations of the Islamic State: Management, Money, and Terror in Iraq, 2005–2010

Patrick B. Johnston, Jacob N. Shapiro, Howard J. Shatz, Benjamin Bahney, Danielle F. Jung, Patrick K. Ryan, and Jonathan Wallace
RAND Corporation
2016


This report includes critical information on the earlier incarnation of ISIS.  It is one of the most well documented source books for understanding the roots of ISIS.  While it's necessary for context, it's not great for present narrative.

Does ISIS Need Territory to Survive?

Mara Revkin and Jacob Olidort
The New York Times
21 October 2016


Here there is fantastic debate between two well-qualified scholars on questions that have plagued a great many lesser informed individuals on ISIS and the importance of territory versus ideology.  This is a critical discussion.​

Don’t Kill the Caliph! The Islamic State and the Pitfalls of Leadership Decapitation

Haroro J. Ingram and Craig Whiteside
War on the Rocks
2 June 2016


This is the best discussion on the succession of leaders following the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  It's an important read for understanding the progression of leadership as ISIS moved from charismatic to bureaucratic leaders.

The Road to ISIS: An unorthodox anthropologist goes face to face with ISIS. Is the payoff worth the peril?

Tom Bartlett
The Chronicle of Higher Education
20 May 2016


Anthropologist Scott Atran does some of the most significant research on extremist actors.  Unlike most academics he interviews the actors face-to-face.  In such meetings he gains an understanding that few have.  The question of worth is whether or not his research and data can be turned into a useful theory.

The Hell After ISIS

Anand Gopal
The Atlantic
May 2016


The idea that removing ISIS was the solution to the problems in Iraq is powerfully dispelled in this article.  This is a powerful explanation of the challenges faced by Iraqi Sunnis as a result of the sectarianism taken advantage of by ISIS.​

On the Front Line Against ISIS: Who Fights, Who Doesn’t, and Why

Scott Atran
The Daily Beast
19 April 2016


Scott Atran is one of the best informed and best traveled people writing about ISIS and like-minded groups.  He is an anthropologist who has traveled to the region and spoken with the people.  His papers and thoughts are important for seeing extremists as they see themselves and coming to understand how they see the world.​​

Long Before Brussels, ISIS Sent Terror Operatives to Europe

Rukmini Callimachi
New York Times
29 March 2016


This is a powerful discussion of the rat-line that leads back to Europe from Syria.  Normally when commentators speak of sophisticated terrorist attacks they do not explain why four people attacking different places at similar times is considered sophisticated.  This article gives insight into the reasons why.  It usually deals with controlling the explosives and evading security.

Living Under the Sword of ISIS in Syria

Marwan Hisham
New York Times
14 January 2016


This is an op-ed supposedly written by a resident of Raqqa.  The piece provides insight into motivations to fight and the challenges of life under ISIS rule.  We are just fighting for ISIS because we are poor – is a paraphrase of the gist of the article.  Poor patriots are being dragged into the service of the caliphate.

Saddam’s ISIS? The Terrorist Group’s Real Origin Story

Samuel Helfont and Michael Brill
Foreign Affairs
​12 January 2016


Another article discussing the role of the Saddam Hussein's legacy for ISIS.  In this case, the authors explain why ISIS is not Saddam’s fault or a result of supposed Islamist policies of his regime.  The article is informative though it doesn’t live up to the claim of its sub-title.

How ISIS Actually Lost Ramadi

Nancy A. Youssef and Shane Harris
The Daily Beast
​30 December 2015


This article provides insight into the fight in Ramadi – who really did the fighting, how the battle progressed conceptually, and the destruction inflicted on the city to accomplish all of this.​

The Believer: How an Introvert with a Passion for Religion and Soccer Became Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Leader of the Islamic State

William McCants
Brookings
1 September 2015


Great background on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS and the first declared caliph of a territory in almost a hundred years.​

The ISIS Defense In Iraq And Syria: Countering an Adaptive Enemy

Jessica Lewis McFate
Middle East Security Report 27 for the Institute for the Study of War
May 2015.
​
The single best summation of ISIS behaviors at the strategic and operational level up through publication.

What Saddam Gave ISIS

Jamie Dettmer and Jacob Siegel
The Daily Beast
21 April 2015


This is another article that places emphasis on the secular nature of ISIS rather than the religious foundation.  I don’t agree with the implications, but I do think this is informative and well written.  Two things can be true at the same time: ISIS can be truly religiously motivated and it can also have an intelligence apparatus built off Saddam’s pattern.​

How Obama Abandoned Iraq: Why the rise of ISIS and the fall of Iraq weren't inevitable

Emma Sky
Slate
17 April 2015


Emma Sky wrote a great book about the Iraq War and her role in it, which was significant.  Here she expresses her frustrations at the failure to take improvements and turn them into success.  Instead, the world reaped the whirlwind of ISIS.

Iraq Forces, Pushing ISIS Out of Tikrit, Give Few Thanks for U.S. Air Strikes

Rod Nordland
The New York Times
​April 2, 2015


A great look at the power of conspiracy theory and the role that it plays in shaping how people perceive the world.  This article has a quote from a militia fighter who swears that he saw the US supporting ISIS in the battle.  I don’t think that man was lying, but he was wrong.  This is the power of the narrative landscape as it shapes thoughts and perceptions.​​

From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State

Cole Bunzel
The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, Analysis Paper No. 19
March 2015


This is a great summary of the ideological history behind ISIS and the senior leaders of it.  Read this to understand the history of the ideas.​​
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  • Home
  • Blog
  • Downloads
    • War in the Book of Mormon
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    • Articles >
      • Narrative
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      • American Strategy
      • Extremism
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    • Podcasts
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  • Reviews
  • Narrative
    • Influence
    • Maneuver in the Narrative Space
    • Narrative War: Understanding ISIS
  • About
    • Brian Steed
    • Narrative Strategies