IAI seminar on "The Fight against ISIS and the US Policy in the Middle East", with Daniel Serwer, Middle East Institute and School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Rome, 19 March 2015
This was one of my most recent powerpoint presentation. I worked in a small group with 2 other partners. The presentation lasted 1 hour followed by a group discussion.
Though the worst intelligence failure, the USA took maximum advantage of the 9/11 tragedy and embarked on the mission to accomplish the objectives set forth in the infamous neo-con paper, known as the American Century.
America employed all its -military, diplomatic and financial, to wage a war of terror on several countries besides Afghanistan-its starting point.
Whether it was a stellar success or a dismal failure, it has cost the world massively in terms of loss of human lives, financial losses, refugees crises, missed opportunities, and surprisingly, increased global terrorism
This presentation covers all these issues in greater detail
This was one of my most recent powerpoint presentation. I worked in a small group with 2 other partners. The presentation lasted 1 hour followed by a group discussion.
Though the worst intelligence failure, the USA took maximum advantage of the 9/11 tragedy and embarked on the mission to accomplish the objectives set forth in the infamous neo-con paper, known as the American Century.
America employed all its -military, diplomatic and financial, to wage a war of terror on several countries besides Afghanistan-its starting point.
Whether it was a stellar success or a dismal failure, it has cost the world massively in terms of loss of human lives, financial losses, refugees crises, missed opportunities, and surprisingly, increased global terrorism
This presentation covers all these issues in greater detail
'Israel-Palestine Conflict' is an ongoing conflict since the mid-20th century which has still not attained any settlement between the parties involved, it is also the conflict which has attracted lots of public opinions around the world with celebrities taking sides, public protesting around the world showing their support, foreign governments sending aids and condolences for the losses suffered, while the U.N and U.S trying to broker peace agreement between the masses which has seemed to fail each and every time! So I would like to highlight this never-ending conflict and come up with a resolution to this problem through this presentation.
Contents :
- Introduction
- Conflict Mapping
- Timeline of Conflict
- Statistics
- Understanding the Conflict
- Resolution
Subscribe on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSp_MjvR1ihLcSFDCfCbOg
Follow on Instagram - https://instagram.com/masroorbaig/
Catch up on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MasroorBaig1996
National security is a state or condition where our most cherished values and beliefs, our democratic way of life, our institutions of governance and our unity, welfare and well-being as a nation and people are permanently protected and continuously enhanced
The war in Yemen has created another humanitarian catastrophe, wrecking a country that was already the poorest in the Arab world. With millions of people now on the brink of famine, the need for a comprehensive cease-fire and political settlement is ever more urgent. Yemenis have suffered tremendous hardships from air bombardments, rocket attacks, and economic blockades. According to the U.N., approximately 4,000 civilians have been killed, the majority in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes. All parties to the conflict stand accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas .
Peace of Westphalia (1648) not only created the modern nation-state system in Europe but also stipulated the basic rules of statecraft.
Despite all the criticisms, the concept of state and nation took firm roots in most parts of the world, thanks to colonialism.
However, it is now facing existential challenges from different sources
This presentation is all about the modern nation-state system, its origin, essential elements, challenges it is facing, & its future prospects
'Israel-Palestine Conflict' is an ongoing conflict since the mid-20th century which has still not attained any settlement between the parties involved, it is also the conflict which has attracted lots of public opinions around the world with celebrities taking sides, public protesting around the world showing their support, foreign governments sending aids and condolences for the losses suffered, while the U.N and U.S trying to broker peace agreement between the masses which has seemed to fail each and every time! So I would like to highlight this never-ending conflict and come up with a resolution to this problem through this presentation.
Contents :
- Introduction
- Conflict Mapping
- Timeline of Conflict
- Statistics
- Understanding the Conflict
- Resolution
Subscribe on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSp_MjvR1ihLcSFDCfCbOg
Follow on Instagram - https://instagram.com/masroorbaig/
Catch up on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MasroorBaig1996
National security is a state or condition where our most cherished values and beliefs, our democratic way of life, our institutions of governance and our unity, welfare and well-being as a nation and people are permanently protected and continuously enhanced
The war in Yemen has created another humanitarian catastrophe, wrecking a country that was already the poorest in the Arab world. With millions of people now on the brink of famine, the need for a comprehensive cease-fire and political settlement is ever more urgent. Yemenis have suffered tremendous hardships from air bombardments, rocket attacks, and economic blockades. According to the U.N., approximately 4,000 civilians have been killed, the majority in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes. All parties to the conflict stand accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas .
Peace of Westphalia (1648) not only created the modern nation-state system in Europe but also stipulated the basic rules of statecraft.
Despite all the criticisms, the concept of state and nation took firm roots in most parts of the world, thanks to colonialism.
However, it is now facing existential challenges from different sources
This presentation is all about the modern nation-state system, its origin, essential elements, challenges it is facing, & its future prospects
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has taken Mosul, the 2nd largest city in Iraq, as part of a multi-front, concerted military campaign. Read this SlideShare presentation for the current state of play in a dangerous and developing situation.
Source: Looking Glass Publications
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WTT: Extremism in the Middle East and Africa (Jordan Anderson)WarwickThinkTank
The PowerPoint slides from Warwick Think Tank's event on Tuesday Oct 14, 2014, edited for public distribution. The discussion was led by Mr Jordan Anderson.
Warwick Think Tank is a student society at the University of Warwick. It is the first student-led think tank in the country, affiliated with the prominent national think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and the global student think tank network, Campus Policy.
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I vincitori hanno discusso la propria visione dell'Europa e le loro proposte di rilancio in un dibattito serrato con personalità del mondo culturale, dello sport, economico e istituzionale, moderato da Ilaria Sotis, giornalista Radio1 Rai.
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http://www.iai.it/it/eventi/giovani-talenti-litalia-leuropa-e-il-mondo
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About the Speaker
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The Fight against ISIS and the US Policy in the Middle East
1. The Fight Against ISIS and US Middle
East Policy
Daniel Serwer
Scholar, Middle East Institute
Professor, School of Advanced International
Studies, Johns Hopkins University
www.peacefare.net
@DanielSerwer
March 19, 2015
IAI
3. Context is important
• The fight against ISIS is occurring at the center of
gravity of the Middle East
• Its impacts are felt not only in Iraq and Syria and
echo in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Iran
• The war also occurs along the Sunni/Shia fault
line
• Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf states and Iran all
have vital interests not only in the defeat of ISIS
but also how it occurs as well as the aftermath
4.
5. ISIS is not just a terrorist group
• President Obama calls it a terrorist group and
is trying to use CT methods to kill it
• But it is more than a terror group, even if less
than a state
• It controls and administers territory and
significant populations
• It acts like an insurgency and has declared
itself a caliphate
7. Brief history of the Islamic State
• Roots in Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, (Group of
Monotheism and Jihad) founded by Jordanian Abu
Musab al Zarqawi in 1999
• Became known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, joined insurgency
against US occupation
• AQI supplied and supported from Syria
• Zarqawi targeted and killed by US 2006
• Group became Islamic State in Iraq
• By 2008, largely defeated
• 80% of leadership killed or captured (Odierno, 2010)
8. Back from defeat
• May 2010 Abu Bakr al Baghdadi takes over ISI
• Ba’athists replenish leadership
• US withdrawal from Iraq December 2010, negotiated and
signed by Bush administration
• Revolution begins in Syria spring 2011
• Breaking the Walls (2012/13) frees thousands of prisoners
in Iraq
• ISI establishes and tries to merge with Jabhat al Nusra, as
the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS)
• Al Qaeda rejects and disavows ISIS (2014)
• June 2014 Islamic State takes Mosul and declares caliphate
9. What is a caliphate?
• Caliph means “successor”: to Mohammed
• Shia/Sunni split based on quarrel about who proper successor was
• Sunnis regard Abu Bakr, Mohammed’s close friend, as first Caliph,
• Shia think Ali, Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law, was rightful heir
• Difference is method (election vs family)
• Comparable to quarrels over legitimacy in Christianity: schisms in the
Catholic Church, the Great Schism between Eastern and Western churches
or Protestant/Catholic
• A caliphate (or more than one) existed more or less from the 7th to the
20th century; ISIS imagines it is imitating early ones
• Damascus and Baghdad were capitals of the Umayyad (661-750) and
Abbasid (750-1258) caliphates, respectively
• Last was the Ottoman Caliphate abolished by Ataturk 1924
• Restoration of a “true” caliphate is supposed to occur in the leadup to the
return of the Mahdi (messiah) and the end times
10. What is life like under in the ISIS
caliphate?
• Strict practices: women cover (niqab), no
smoking, Sharia, purifying violence against evil
• Ideology is intolerant, anti-Western, anti-Shia
• Authoritarian governance through two
deputies and local governors in Iraq and Syria
• Services delivered (water, electricity), taxes
collected, law enforced, schools open
11. Most Sunnis don’t like ISIS
• In recent polling, Munqith Dagher finds in ISIS-
controlled areas of Syria ISIS support is at 13%
• In Iraq, 97% view ISIS as a terrorist organization
• But they don’t necessarily like the anti-ISIS coalition
either: yes in Iraq and Libya, no in Syria and Yemen
• In Syria, support is stronger for the Coalition in ISIS-
controlled areas than in opposition or regime-
controlled areas
• Also stronger among Sunnis than Shia
• BUT: if given a choice between ISIS and Shia militias,
Sunnis prefer ISIS
12. How did this happen?
• Bashar al Assad focused his attacks on
moderates, allowed the Islamic State to thrive
• Nouri al Maliki ran an exclusionary show,
accused Sunni leaders, ignored protests
• Security forces in both countries became
increasingly sectarian, driving Sunni
population towards extremists
• The Islamic State was smart, patient and
ferocious
13. The new Republic of Fear
• West marvels at the use of social media, level
and types of violence
• But it is both necessary and productive for ISIS
• It intimidates large numbers of people to
comply and helps recruitment
• Nothing succeeds like success, but nothing
fails like failure
• If we are able to begin to push ISIS back, it will
lose a lot of its appeal
14. US reacted slowly
• US Administration slow to recognize risk
• Thought Iraqi army could/would fight/contain
• ISIS advanced against Kurds, Yezidis June/July
2014 prompted unilateral bombing in August
• Only August/September 2014 beheading of 2
American journalists stirred coalition effort
• So we are less than six months into a counter-
insurgency campaign
• CI typically last 10-15 years!
15. The anti-ISIS war effort now
• Inherent Resolve Coalition: 60 countries
participating, 20 with milops in Iraq, Syria or
both
• Mainly air attacks: 60% US
• 4500 US troops in Iraq, plus civilian support
• AUMF debate in Washington: legally
irrelevant, politically important
• Ds want less, Rs want more (especially
forward targeters) but all resist enduring ops
16. Key operations
• Kobane: not a strategically important place, but
Coalition fought because ISIS exposed itself, Kurds
succeeded but town is destroyed
• Tikrit: retaken by mostly Shia forces with support
from Iran, city depopulated, no apparent plan for
governance afterwards
• Iraq/Syria border: some progress in cutting ISIS
supply lines
• Mosul: US advertising offensive for this spring, a
much bigger and more difficult effort
17. The fight is more than kinetic
• Obama insisted on replacing Iraqi PM Maliki to rally Kurdish
and Sunni support
• Diplomacy is still key to sustaining Coalition
• Focused now on foreign fighters and financing
• Massive humanitarian relief effort
• Little attention yet to how cities (Mosul, Raqqa) will be
liberated or governed, planning just beginning in Iraq for
security, governance, essential services/$2 billion
• No visible non-military support to Syrian opposition
• No real idea of what to do about Assad
• Failure post-war would leave a vacuum that extremists
would quickly fill
18. Consequences
• Enormous numbers of people displaced
• In Syria, at least 1/3 of the population out of its homes, in
Iraq millions
• Many in Syria desperate, less so in Iraq because of oil,
production mostly unperturbed
• Four million refugees
• Neighboring countries destabilized: especially Lebanon,
but risks also to Jordan and Turkey
• Sectarian and ethnic tensions heightened, especially in
Syria
• Little apparent prospect of return to the status quo ante
21. US policy options
• Continue current CT war, efforts on foreign fighters and
finance
• Retrain ISF, support National Guard in Iraq
• Start military rollback: is Mosul real, or a feint?
• Train a new Syrian opposition force: in progress for up
to 5000, insufficient to turn the tide
• Unify and support existing Syrian opposition: not
visible
• “Safe area” along the Turkish border protected by no-
bombardment zone, or in south
• Boots? Loafers?
22. Question marks in Syria
• Cooperation with Iran?
• Russian-backed intra-Syrian dialogue: road to
nowhere?
• Other intra-Syrian efforts: Cairo? Paris?
• UN freeze proposal: itself frozen
• Governance once ISIS is rolled back
• Syria reconstruction: Day After, Syria
Transition Roadmap, UN ECSWA
23. The Levant will never be the same
• Sectarian and ethnic divisions accentuated
• Minorities obliterated
• Partition? Independent Kurdistan? Sunni regions
in Iraq? Alawite enclave in Syria?
• Safe haven for international terrorists? Khorasan
group
• Iran wins with Assad, loses big with partition
• Russia still has its chips on Assad but loses big if
he falls
• Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan at risk