ISIS Synthesis Essay

1275 Words3 Pages

The influence of The Islamic State of Iraq in Syria has reached all over the globe as nations attempt to counteract the capabilities of the group. To assist with this counteraction of terrorism, governments seek to label and identify terrorists by placing them in distinct categories that are determined by the location an organization attacks, the intended targets they attack, and the location the terrorist actors are from. ISIS is responsible for multiple attacks, attacks which have crossed multiple international borders including borders that do not represent the actors that make up the organization, attacks that are based upon the extreme belief in Islam, and attacks based on the teachings of the Quran to incite murder against individuals …show more content…

From 2013 to now, ISIS has been behind over 143 terror attacks worldwide. The influence of ISIS is observed worldwide with combatants, ideological supporters, and financial supporters from all over the globe and they gain more power and influence with each attack that they carry out. These factors aid in identifying ISIS as an international, transnational, and religious terrorist …show more content…

ISIS was originally apart of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and since has grown ideological support which has led to the spread of terror worldwide. Foreign Affairs states, that ISIS is a much larger threat compared to what we saw from Al Qaeda on 9/11 because ISIS commands over 40,000 people, while Al Qaeda was only commanding 400 (“True Believers”, 2017). CNN reports that ISIS is currently responsible for over 143 attacks in over 29 countries (“ISIS Goes Global”, 2017). Some of these attacks are not directly led by ISIS, rather their ideological supporters who became radicalized and carried out attacks on their own country. Transnational terrorism is defined as terrorism that crosses international borders, but the countries they attack do not represent the actors carrying out the attack, so in other words they can’t be from that country for the act to be classified as transnational. The 2015 Paris Attack is an example of transnational terrorism as none of the militants were from the country they were attacking. The ringleader of the attack was identified by BBC as Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and he was from Belgium as were the other coconspirators of the attack (Paris Attackers, 2016). Although attacks in the United States, such as the San Bernadino shooting or the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting were inspired by ISIS, they cannot be considered transnational

Open Document