Six years ago, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi delivered his first sermon as “Caliph” of the newly minted Islamic State. Today, Islamic State branches are thriving globally despite territorial defeats in Iraq and Syria. The US is negotiating a drawdown in Iraq, withdrawing from Afghanistan, and assessing force levels in Africa. Is the US again declaring victory too soon? And what comes next for the Islamic State?

Please join AEI’s Katherine Zimmerman for a virtual conversation with a panel of experts on the Islamic State, its ideology, and its operations. They will discuss the Islamic State’s strategy, how it interprets its own successes and failures, and lessons the Trump administration should draw from past counterterrorism operations.

This audio first appeared at an AEI webinar held on July 14, 2020.

Watch the full event here.

Event Materials:   – Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside, and Charlie Winter: The ISIS Reader   – Cole Bunzel: The Islamic State’s Ideology: History of a Rift