Treat Islamic State as nation-State in Order to Fight it, Counterinsurgency Expert Proposes

An effective military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria should strike at what essentially makes it a nation-state, namely rolling back its territory and disrupting its sales of certain commodities on the international market, a counterinsurgency and terrorism expert said in a June 15 talk at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank.

David Kilcullen, who served 24 years in the Australian Army before becoming a counterinsurgency adviser to the U.S. government, said the coalition of 30 nations fighting the terrorist group should engage in what he calls "active containment."