The depravity of ISIS shocked the world into action, and the U.S. again called on Airmen to take the fight to the enemy. As military professionals, we should strive to understand the enemy as well as we understand ourselves. McCants provides us a window into the barbaric strategy, prophetic visions, and ultimate aims of these extremists who want to be a state. This understanding gives context to ISIS’ gory videos, social media strategy, and should inform our strategy to defeat them.
Will William McCants is a scholar of militant Islamism. He is a fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution. An adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, he is a former senior advisor on violent extremism to the U.S. State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Founder and co-editor of the website Jihadica, he is also a former research analyst for CNA, a non-profit organization that encompasses the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research.
