The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, controls territory in Iraq and Syria and seeks to establish a caliphate governed by its extreme interpretation of Sharia law. It has grown into a well-funded military organization with over 17,000 fighters and controls key infrastructure. The international community has responded by forming a coalition to counter ISIS through airstrikes, supporting local forces, cutting off financing, and addressing the humanitarian crisis.

2. WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC STATE?

3. The Islamic “Caliphate” now governing
parts of Iraq and Syria is becoming one of
the most significant threats to American
national security. The Islamic Caliphate,
also called the Islamic State, is worse
than al-Qaeda. No longer a terrorist
organization. It is a full-blown army, and
It is Al-Qaeda in its doctrine, ambition
and increasingly in its threat to USA
interests…
Mc Gurk Brett

4. WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC STATE?
 The Islamic State is not only a terrorist group.
It is a political and military organization that holds
a radical interpretation of Islam as a political
philosophy and seeks to impose that worldview by
force on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

5. WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC STATE ?
 A group expelled from Al-Qaeda for being too
extreme, the Islamic State claims to be the legitimate ruler
of all Sunni Muslims worldwide. They have established
what they regard as a state which includes large swaths of
territory in Syria and Iraq, governed from Raqqa in Syria.

6. ISIS POLITICAL VISION
The political vision of an Islamic Caliphate is to
establish control over territory, planting a flag, and
establishing functional governance that will in turn
legitimize religious authority.

7. ISIS POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
 Permanently break down political boundaries in
Iraq, Syria, and the region by cultivating conditions for
government failure or sectarian civil war.

8. ISIS POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
 Establish the Islamic Caliphate by controlling terrain
across Iraq and Syria, governing the population within,
and defending against external threats.

12. ISIS POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
 Bring like-minded people to fight alongside and
settle within the Islamic Caliphate.

13. ISIS POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
 Expand the territory of the Caliphate and connect to
the wider Muslim community, or the Ummah.

14. WHAT ARE ITS CAPABILITIES?

15. WHAT ARE ITS CAPABILITIES?
FIGHTERS
Estimated at 17,000, including roughly 100
Americans and 500 UK citizens

17. WHAT ARE ITS CAPABILITIES?
MONEY
The group’s wealth as high as $2 billion

18. WHAT ARE ITS CAPABILITIES?
TERRITORY
A snaking band in eastern Syria and western and northern
Iraq that amounts roughly to the size of Belgium

19. THE ISIS MILITARY STRATEGY
The expansion of ISIS control zones, attack zones, and
support zones deep into Iraq and Syria frame a visual
forecast of the ISIS campaign in order to establish the
physical integrity of the Islamic Caliphate.

20. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To establish control of urban terrain in the Sunni
heartland of Iraq that connects to the core physical
strength of ISIS in Syria, forming the territory of the
Islamic Caliphate.

21. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To control critical infrastructure that increases the
wealth and international leverage of the Islamic Caliphate.

22. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To create a border exclusion zone in Iraqi Kurdistan
and the ethno-sectarian mixed provinces of Diyala,
Baghdad, and Babil in order to separate the Islamic
Caliphate from Iran.

23. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To destroy the offensive capability of the Iraqi
Security Forces and the Syrian regime.

24. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To destroy Iraq by denying the capital as a seat of
government and as a defensible Shi’a city; to ensure that
the government of Syria does not recover its legitimacy.

25. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To expand the terrain that ISIS can claim as part of the
Islamic Caliphate by seizing outlying cities in Syria and Iraq such as
Rutba and Sha’er and eventually create additional exterior lines of
communication.

26. THE ISIS MILITARY OBJECTIVES
 To extend the Islamic Caliphate into areas of northern
and central Syria currently occupied by the Syrian opposition
and Jabhat Al-Nusra and eliminate resistance.

27. WHAT ARE THE ISLAMIC STATE’S
WEAKNESSES?

28. WHAT ARE THE ISLAMIC STATE’S
WEAKNESSES?
 First, much of its power in Iraq depends on a
political alliance with other Sunni factions.
 Second, the Islamic State’s declaration of a
Caliphate is unpopular even within the Jihadi community.
 Third, Jihadis do not have a strong track record of
governance.

29. THE THREATS

30. THE THREATS
 A foiled chemical attack.
 An foiled suicide attack.
 A rocket attack against U.S. ships it the Jordanian port.
 The tactically successful and strategically disastrous.

31. ISIS’S THREAT TO THE REGION
 ISIS threatens to dismember Iraq and create a Sunni
Islamist state that could launch military operations at
other neighboring states.
 Fractured and unsettled the Middle East and
threatens to spark a broader sectarian conflict.

32. ISIS’S THREAT TO THE USA/EU FIGHTERS
 Americans or Europeans fighting with ISIS might
return to the United States to carry out attacks.
 As of early September the potential threat from ISIS
to the USA.

33. USA AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

34. AMERICAN STRATEGY AGAINST ISIS
 Systematic campaign of airstrikes against ISIS
targets, both in Iraq and Syria.
 Support for forces fighting ISIS on the ground.
 Utilize counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIS
attacks.
 Provide humanitarian assistance to those affected
by the crisis.

35. INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY TO COUNTER
THE THREAT FROM ISIS

36. INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY TO COUNTER THE
THREAT FROM ISIS
 The provision of military support to Iraqi partners.
 Stopping the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and
Iraq.
 Countering ISIS’s financing and funding, including
any trade in petroleum products.
 Addressing the humanitarian crisis.
 De-legitimising ISIS’s ideology.

37. INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY TO COUNTER THE
THREAT FROM ISIS
CORE STRATEGIC GOALS
 Contain and degrade the threat ISIS poses to the
Middle East region and global security.
 Alleviate the humanitarian crisis affecting millions
of Syrians and Iraqis.
 Restore the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria.

38. AN INTEGRATED STRATEGY TO DEGRADE AND
DEFEAT ISIS
 Building and managing an international coalition to
defeat ISIS and stabilize the region.
 Increasing support for Iraq’s political, economic,
and security transitions, in particular with a revived USA-
Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement.
 Initiating a more concerted effort to end Syria’s civil
war and support the creation of a transitional
government.

39. CONTRIBUTION OF THE REGIONAL PARTNERS
 Create an ISIS-focused intelligence fusion cell in the
region.
 Establish a multi-agency and multinational ISIS
threat finance cell to target the economic base of ISIS.
 Coordinate security assistance to national and sub
national actors fighting ISIS and Al-Nusra Front on the
ground in Syria and Iraq.
 Airstrikes and surveillance in support of regional
forces and local ground forces fighting ISIS and Al-Nusra
Front.

40. ENGAGEMENT AT THE UNITED NATIONS
 Seek passage of a new UNSC resolution on foreign
terrorist fighters.
 Urge the appointment of a UN special envoy to lead
the international response to the regional humanitarian
crisis and step up assistance for displaced Syrians and
Iraqis.
 Encourage planning for a possible peacekeeping or
stabilization mission.