THE WEST’S WAR AGAINST ISLAMIC STATE

The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS/ISIL) in 2013 and its June 2014 declaration of itself, under the new organizational name of “Islamic State” (IS), as the new “caliphate,” shook world affairs, particularly as tens of thousands of IS fighters steamrolled through northern and eastern Syria and western and parts of northern and central Iraq. The establishment of IS “provinces” (wilayat) in Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and the Sahel, Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia alarmed governments around the world and led to the creation of a U.S.-led coalition to combat the militant group and its offshoots, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, in September 2014. The U.S. and its allies launched Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), a multi-pronged offensive campaign targeting IS on the battlefield as well as in cyberspace and the financial realm.