How does the recent history of Iraq (including the rise of ISIS) conform to Piazza’s theory?

How does the recent history of Iraq (including the rise of ISIS) conform to Piazza’s theory?

            Iraq has had a history of terrorism for many years, and this has affected many nations worldwide, the U.S being the most affected. The U.S is the biggest enemy of terrorists from Iraq, and most attacks focused on the U.S has led to massive destruction. The rise of ISIS in Iraq posed a lot of threats to other nations, and the U.S began a coalition that resulted in launching airstrikes against the ISIS in 2014. Despite the U.S launching these attacks, the ISIS thrived in some part like Raqqa and Aleppo. Today the ISIS network has spread all over the world, especially the Islamic countries. In these countries, the ISIS groups rebel against the government by killing the citizens and bombing buildings. They aim to prevent the country from prospering, making it hard for developing countries to grow economically due to attacks from the ISIS groups.

According to Piazza, failing and failed states pose danger to international security because they provide an environment where the terrorist can thrive. He claims that these states offer a safe haven for international terrorist groups. They have severe political instabilities, humanitarian crises, and breakdown of governability, which is favorable for the terrorist groups to thrive by recruiting active terrorist groups (Piazza). This notion is similar to the terrorist events that happened in Iraq in the past during the rise of the ISIS group. Iraq has had many terrorists targeted by the U.S, and some of them have been captured and killed. However, Iraq continues to fall because it provides an environment that is suitable for the terrorist to launch international attacks. The U.S has gone to the extent of working with the Iraq government, but they have not managed to destroy the terrorist’s territories in the country entirely. The ISIS group has recruited most of Iraq citizens and brainwashed them to think that the government, including the U.S, is their enemy. With this kind of situation, it is difficult for the government of Iraq to fight the terrorist because they lack support from the citizens. That is why Iraq has continuously failed because of the high control of the terrorists associated with the ISIS groups. However, in 2018 after the international attack was launched on the ISIS territories in Iraq and Syria.

Piazza also argues that states that are rated high with regards to state failures are more likely to host active terrorist groups that commit attacks abroad. He explains that such a pattern occurs because the failing state provides smoother operation, recruitment, and penetration of terrorists who launch their attacks abroad (Piazza). The history of Iraq conforms to this argument because the rise of ISIS began in Iraq, and according to Piazza’s theory, it seems they saw Iraq as a favorable location to breed their terrorist Army.

It is believed that the remnants of Al Qaeda started ISIS, and despite the intervention of the U.S troops in 2004, they still managed to grow. The instability in Iraq and Syria majorly aided Their growth. Therefore, the ISIS was able to carry out secrete attacks back to back, which strengthened their ranks. The state of Iraq and Syrian governments made it possible for the ISIS to spread like wildfire in the two countries. They began to recruit more and launched more attacks. With time the U.S noticed the trend, and they tried to stop the spread since it was starting to influence other countries, especially the Islamic State in Africa, such as Somalia, Nigeria, Libya, and Sudan. The U.S noticed that the group was weakening the international state; that is why it began airstrikes on the significant territories of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. They were not successful because the same thing that was happening in Iraq and Syria was happening in other countries that the ISIS group had influenced.

Piazza, in his writing, continues to support his theory. He says that the failing and failed states through their incompetence, they create political vacuums that the terrorists can comfortably obtain personal security, economic assistance and other activities that will make them gain the support from the citizens (Piazza). Iraq and Syria, for instance, facilitated the growth of the ISIS group because they created an opportunity for the terrorist group to gain the attention of the locals. It is even believed that the ISIS group had penetrated the Iraq and Syrian government, with some of their recruits occupying high government positions. The individuals on the top made sure that they inform the ISIS members about the plans of the government and other international attacks. That is why it was difficult for the U.S to wreck the ISIS territories. ISIS had gained support from the locals; therefore, it was challenging to differentiate between the ISIS territories and the local villagers.  The citizens were made to believe that the U.S wanted to destroy their country by claiming that they were terrorists. Therefore, the government had difficulties in gaining support from the locals about the whereabouts of the terrorists.

Furthermore, the failed states provide opportunities for terrorists to train, generate revenue, and set up communications that were beyond the reach of international security. This is possible because the failing or the failed states are faced with high corruption rates making the terrorist get financial support from those in more senior positions in the government. Piazza terms this as the exploitation of the stateless areas. For the case of Iraq, during the rise of the ISIS, the terrorist groups had created segments of the polity of the country that the state cannot penetrate (Piazza). Consequently, they had created networks that could resist the state authority. During the rise of ISIS, the state authority was majorly contributed by the terrorist groups. From the situation of Iraq, Piazza’s theory seems to be accurate. Even others in other parts of the world that had strong ISIS support depicted the same characteristics as that of Iraq. Today Iraq has gained its stability, and the ISIS groups do not control it because the U.S made sure that it destroyed them by targeting their leaders.

References

Piazza, James. Incubators Of Terror: Do Failed And Failing States Promote Transnational Terrorism? 52nd ed., International Studies Association, 2008, pp. 469–488, http://file:///C:/Users/hp/Documents/Piazza+Incubators+of+Terrorism%20(1).pdf. Accessed 27 Mar 2020.