Knowing the Enemy: Understanding the Islamic State and Principles for Defeating It

The purposes of this Perspective are to help identify threats to U.S. interests posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL, propose a context in which ISIL should be judged particularly ISILs character and motivations, as well as key regional and global issues that frame the context, provide an initial framework for interpreting these insights, and outline a way ahead for developing and assessing courses of action and generating concrete options. This paper does not attempt to develop discrete courses of action or critique current ones rather, it seeks to outline general principles that U.S. policymakers must consider when conceiving and weighing appropriate strategies to combat ISIL.