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Soldiers of End-Times
Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State
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2023
Summary
In 2014, the Islamic State shocked the world when it defeated national armies on the battlefield and seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. The group’s military success can be traced to four key variables: organizational innovation, shaping operations, will to fight, and a knack for retaining the initiative. The IS military project led not only to the declaration of a “caliphate,” but to the proliferation of jihadist franchises that devastated countries, displaced millions, and killed tens of thousands. Yet the group’s weaknesses ultimately led to the collapse of its territorial achievement.
Expert Ido Levy begins this pioneering study by surveying jihadist warfare from the 1970s to the present. He then incorporates primary sources and interviews with military officers, experts, and journalists to explain how IS used conventional military capabilities to defeat larger, better-equipped state armies and conquer land in Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Philippines, and Nigeria. Anchored by four case studies—Ramadi, Kobane, Mosul, and Baghuz—the volume illuminates potential strategies to prevent a resurgence by IS or similar groups.
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Bibliographic data
Edition
1/2023
Copyright Year
2023
ISBN-Print
978-1-5381-8131-7
ISBN-Online
978-1-5381-8133-1
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
274
Product Type
Monograph
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Dedication No access
Contents No access
List of Illustrations No access
Acknowledgments No access
Abbreviations No access
Introduction No access
1: Sunni Jihadist Armies Before 2014 No access Pages 8 - 33
2: Origins and Elements of IslamicState Military Effectiveness No access Pages 34 - 51
3: IS Performance in Conventional Operations No access Pages 52 - 141
4: Sources of IS Military Effectiveness No access Pages 142 - 177
5: IS Military Operations Outside Iraq and Syria No access Pages 178 - 217
6: Assessing the Islamic State’s Way of War No access Pages 218 - 231
7: Lessons Learned and Policy Implications No access Pages 232 - 265
