Yesterday, ISIS posted an online video showing Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh doused in flammable liquids and standing in a cage. The video then suggests that the hostage was engulfed by flames and burned alive. President Obama publicly stated that if the video is authentic, it is “one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity” of the terrorist group. This comes only days after the release of a separate video of the beheading of journalist Kenji Goto, the second of two Japanese hostages originally held for a $200 million ransom. After executing the first hostage, ISIS changed its request from a monetary request to a prisoner exchange for a failed suicide bomber being held on death row in Jordan. ISIS promised to release both Goto as well as the Jordanian pilot if its demands were met. However, no agreement was ever reached due to the failure of the terror group to provide any type of evidence that the hostages were still alive.
Why should we (Americans) care? Why is this particular event so significant?
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Simple answer: Because ISIS is a growing threat to US national security interests overseas and has repeatedly proven that its members will stop at nothing to gain power and control in the Middle East. ISIS is not a “club” of extremists—it is a complex terror network whose tactics are extremely difficult to comprehend. The ISIS mentality is one that is completely foreign to us Westerners. If we are going to attempt to understand and predict ISIS behavior, then we must look at its strategic use of hostages, manipulation of news media, and torture techniques from an alternative perspective.
What exactly is ISIS?
ISIS, which stands for the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’, is a large, complex and highly organized terrorist network that began as an al-Qaeda “splinter group.” ISIS’s overall goal is to establish an Islamic state led by leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi throughout the Sunni-dominated regions of Syria and Iraq. The brutal organization utilizes sophisticated propaganda and social media techniques to garner attention and recruit members. It is also notorious for public executions, torture and kidnappings. ISIS’s recent track record includes the beheading of two American journalists, a British aid worker, and multiple Lebanese soldiers. The group’s basic sources of revenue come from various illicit activities such as extortion, theft, human trafficking, private donors and the black market oil industry. Today, the group continues to compete with al-Qaeda for power, territory and control in the Middle East.
Now back to the recent hostages.
Why did ISIS kill them instead of exchanging them for a highly valued suicide bomber?
Answer: Because ISIS is not a rational actor in world politics, thus conventional reasoning does not apply here. Instead, ISIS seems to prioritize media attention above all, evident by the publically released videos of the prisoners’ deaths and the refusal to participate in an exchange that they requested. Many analysts believe ISIS never actually intended to release the prisoners at all—instead, the group’s only motive in the ordeal was to a create global media frenzy with the endgame of instilling terror worldwide.
But here’s the issue with this type of reasoning: ISIS cannot practically build a strong, lasting nation with fear as its main source of power. These highly publicized executions have only served to further alienate nearly every other nation. ISIS increasingly marginalizes itself by refusing to abide by the norms of international law and by violating human rights publicly (even North Korea, the king of human rights violations, is extremely secretive about its actions). Thus, it will be absolutely impossible, even if the goal of achieving a nation is realized, for the radicals to ever join the world system (including institutions like the UN, WTO, World Bank, IMF, etc.).
Why is participation in these institutions critical for any nation that wants to survive?
The answer is this: Inclusion results in foreign aid, trade alliances, security and a number of other benefits of critical interactions with other states. Unless ISIS has legitimate plans for full global domination, it will need to trade with other nations to survive. No country is going to trade with a group that publicly kidnaps and executes innocent citizens of their nations.
So what does this mean for the foreseeable future?
The extremists that run and operate ISIS have no plans to slow down until their ideology is spread throughout as many regions of the Middle East possible. In the Goto video, the executioner states to the camera, “Let the nightmare for Japan begin.” What ISIS fails to see is the real nightmare that will begin for them if they continue to push the buttons of major world powers. Increased resistance in the form of air strikes, ground troops and targeted killings by a US-lead coalition will be the new reality for ISIS if its members continue to wreak havoc in the Middle East.
So when will ISIS wake up and smell the sheer ridiculousness of their reasoning?
How can such a sophisticated terror network be so utterly naïve regarding how international politics work?
How do they plan to take on the entire international community when it unites to form a coalition against them?
ISIS PLS.
