How ISIS Fights

Omar Ashour is a Professor of Security and Military Studies and the Founding Chair of the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the author of How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) and The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements (Routledge, 2009), as well as the editor of Bullets to Ballots: Collective De-Radicalisation of Armed Movements (Edinburgh University Press, 2021).

• Foreword by Larry P. Goodson Acknowledgements List of Tables; List of Abbreviations Introduction: Is it Mainly Tactics? Implodes but Expands: How the ‘Islamic State’ Fights in Iraq Explodes and Expands: How the ‘Islamic State’ Fights in Syria Reloads but Implodes: How the ‘Islamic State’ Fights in Libya Lures and Endures: How ‘Sinai Province’ Fights in Egypt Conclusion: Agency with a Tactical Edge Bibliography; Index

Ashour also describes the sequences of tactic implementation (operational level), allowing the reader to visualise the rationale behind the group’s combination of tactical actions and modi operandi. So, even if the reader is not familiar with military terminology, the author’s presentation makes it easy to understand how tactical and operational levels are the key to explaining the combat effectiveness of ISIS in each of the case studies, and to see the patterns and connections among them. [...] Another outstanding contribution of the book is the fifteen categories of tactics that provide an overview of the repertories that explain how ISIS fights on the ground.