When
someone thinks about a state and lives in a stable area of the world, he
sometimes can forget that states are born and die because they are a product of
human being after all. In addition nations are not created as a consequence of
a treaty or of an international recognition by other countries, but they often
have to fight in order to obtain its own existence. An example of that is the appearance
of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East and North
Africa.
The last
wars and revolutions in the Middle East have weakened the countries of the
area. The USA invaded Iraq in 2003 destroying the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein
that was executed in 2006. From now on Iraq became a very fragile state. More
recently the Arab spring broke out and civil wars began in Libya and in Syria where,
in the first case, the old regime fell and ,in the second case, the state lost
control of part of its territory. The lack of power, authority and identity in
these countries created an empty space that was filled by ISIS. In fact, the
Islamic state has a strong ideology, a well-organized army and relevant
economic resources in comparison to Iraq, Syria and Libya, and so it began its
expansion.
ISIS uses various
types of war at the same time in order to expand its power and stabilize its
authority: it commits genocides against ethnic and religious groups, it spreads
its influence towards Muslim young generations with propaganda, it uses terrorist
attacks and public execution to scare people of the Middle East, but also to
shock world public opinion. In addition the Islamic State can count on a good
communication strategy and on a global net of members and sympathizers.
The
consequence is an incredible attention towards ISIS and its expansion nowadays,
but all this attention and the aggressive strategy have generated many enemies
that try to stop the military and mental conquests of ISIS. Only in the next
months (or years?) it will become clear what will happen in the liquid scenario
of the Middle East and North Africa.