ME Fiat Lux Critique - October 23rd PDF

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Akash Kapoor James Gelvin Middle East: Crisis and Conflict 23 October 2017 Chapter 4 traced the rise and decline of ISIS. It specifically examined the rise of ISIS as a byproduct of the dissolution of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-majority army and the American implementation of a Shi’i government in Iraq, both of which significantly increased sectarianization in the region. The chapter also outlined the potential scenarios for ISIS’s downfall, claiming that the most likely scenarios are continued group fighting, with revenge as a motivation, more freelance attacks globally, without an official agenda, or an ultimate loss of hope, with fighters shifting to other criminal enterprises. There were however, some key points that the chapter failed to mention. I believe that the largest was in the section on U.S military action against ISIS. Gelvin claims that the United States was intervening in the Middle East to preserve the state system; however, it is important to note that the United States didn’t deploy nearly as many troops or resources as it did when attempting to preserve stability in Iraq in 2003. This lead me to question whether the United States actually cared about the Middle Eastern state system or if it was only triggered to deploy resources when ISIS began to encroach on oil. I believe that this is an essential question to ask and due to the delay in response time and the lack of resources utilized, it is important to question whether the United States’ intervention was truly a response to violence and the preservation of the state system or a result of the potential for ISIS to meddle with American economic interests....