The Existential Process of ISIS* in the Context of US Foreign Policy and International Law

The subject of this study is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the context of United States’ foreign policy. It focuses on the most important and destructive among the extremist religious groups that had emerged and/or had strengthened as a result of US Middle East policies after the Second Gulf War, and its place in international law – questioning its ability to be a state and analyzing the concept of the “use of force” towards such entities.

The book aims to provide an overview of the US foreign policy in the Middle East in the historical context during Presidents Bush and Obama administrations, highlighting the role of intellectual background, traditions, values and models of US foreign policy, which take roots in their Anglo-Saxon founders and/or in the process of US state-building. The spatial and time limitations are applied, thus, a period of approximately 16 years has been analyzed spatially in the context of the Middle East region. The book tends to answer the question of how US policies towards Iraq and Syria created a power gap in the region and to determine how ISIS being a terrorist organization had used this gap, posing the security threat to the region and whole humanity.

This book also examines scientific and legal basis used by terrorist organization to identify itself as a state, to discuss this de facto case within the framework of international law and to put forth possible international solutions to fight against ISIS.