Cato Event Podcast

Shatz and Shapiro are co-authors of the forthcoming, Foundations of the Islamic State: Management, Money, and Terror in Iraq, 2005-2010 (RAND).Please join us for a discussion by two experts on one of the most important and consequential issues the United States faces today. In 2014, a militant group calling itself the Islamic State, or ISIL, but more generally known as ISIS, attracted widespread attention with several military victories in Iraq and Syria — particularly the takeover of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. Cries of alarm escalated substantially a few months later after ISIS performed and webcast several beheadings of defenseless Western hostages. Unlike other groups designated as terrorist organizations, ISIS actually seeks to hold and govern — and then expand its control over — territory. Moreover, unlike the more wary al-Qaeda central, ISIS welcomes fighters from abroad. Some fear the potential return of people with Western passports who have joined it, as well as potential homegrown