Revisiting Western Strategies against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

This article suggests a combination of military, political, and diplomatic approaches for Western states to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). In Syria, support should be strengthened for the only effective moderate force fighting against ISIS: the Kurdish militias. In Iraq, where ISIS relies on local partners from Sunni Arab tribes to help govern, it is incumbent on the West to break this coalition in order to hamper ISIS’s military operations and weaken its governing capacity.