Lecture Abstract:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) recent decision to create and declare an Islamic caliphate is fraught with uncertainty. Could it be a brilliant move? Or a major blunder?

Conducted by Professor Ahmed Salah Hashim of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, ‘The Evolution of ISIS: from Al-Qaeda Offshoot to Islamic Caliphate’ will trace the evolution of ISIS from an offshoot of Al-Qaeda to an entity heavily embroiled in the Syrian Civil War, where it succeeded in building a so-called ‘Islamic mini-state’, vis-a-vis fighting the Syrian government and other jihadist groups.

It will also explore the origins of its splinter from Al Qaeda and deal in detail with its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s decision to re-immerse the organization into the Iraqi turmoil by taking advantage of Sunni disgruntlement with the Shia-dominated government of Nuri al-Maliki.

About the Speaker:

Ahmed Salah Hashim is Associate Professor of Strategic Studies in the Military Studies Programme, RSIS, Nanyang Technological University.  He focuses primarily on Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, Counter-Terrorism, Middle Eastern, South and Southeast Asian security issues. He received his Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His major works include: Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006; Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency, Adelphi Paper, IISS, 2009; When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka’s Defeat of the Tamil Tigers, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. His forthcoming works include: Small Wars: Too Big to Ignore, London: Hurst, 2015; God, Greed and Guns: The Failure of Iraq, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015; The Man on Horseback: Civil-Military Relations and the Arab Spring, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2015; and Small Wars in the Middle East, New York: Rowman Little and Company, 2016.

Organised by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies and RSIS Events Unit.