A Roundup of Recent Studies and Commentary on ISIS

During the two weeks I was on vacation and posting historical posts, much of the academic and think-tank world was wrestling with the question of the Islamic State (though it's sill easier to call it ISIS in English or Da‘ish  in Arabic since the acronyms are pronounceable). I thought a roundup of some of these pieces and reports might be timely.

Let's start close to home, with recent opinion pieces by colleagues here at MEI:

• Robert Ford for CNN, "How US Can Help Syria Drive Out ISIS,"

• Steven Simon at Foreign Affairs, "The Middle East's Durable Map."

• Wayne White at LobeLog: "Let's Keep ISIS in perspective."

Some longer form reports from other think ranks:

• Michael Knights for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point's CTC Sentinel: "ISIL's Political-Military Power in Iraq." (Summary here and full PDF here.)

• Multiple authors at the Woodrow Wilson Center: "Barbarians: ISIS's Mortal Threat to Women." (Summary here and full PDF here.)

And some other thoughtful voices:

• Paul Pillar at The National Interest, "ISIS in Perspective."

• Hisham Melhem, AlArabiya, "Enough Lies, The Arab Body Politic Created the ISIS Cancer."

• Gary Sick at POMEPS, "The Obama Doctrine."

• Joyce Karam, AlArabiya, "From Kissinger to Clinton, Conspiracy Theories Flourish in Lebanon."

• Theodore Karasik, Al-Arabiya, "Is it Time for Airtrikes on ISIS in Syria?"