To be, or not to be-Statehood is the Question: Analyzing the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

Zook, Leigh Anne (2015) To be, or not to be-Statehood is the Question: Analyzing the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Vivian Ibrahim from History, The University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

On June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi officially declared the Islamic State in the Sham (ISIS) as an Islamic Caliphate, and consequently renamed his organization the Islamic State (IS). Over the course of 2014, the IS rose to garner significant international attention, which heightened following direct US military intervention in August 2014 in the form of airstrikes against the IS’s targets located in Iraq. Determining if the IS qualifies as a state, from a US perspective, holds significant ramifications for future military and diplomatic interactions with this organization. This analysis brings to light the ongoing issues with appropriately and objectively defining “statehood.” Additionally, it demonstrates shortcomings in US military doctrine on fighting state and non-state actors on both strategic and tactical levels. Examining the IS’s political, military and economic activities from October 2006 to August 2014 serves the dual purpose of evaluating how “closely” the IS resembles a state and, determining its potential for becoming a state in the future.

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