Publication

This paper examines documents that provide information on the finances and management of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the predecessor to the Islamic State (IS), between 2005 and 2010. The authors contend that the documents demonstrate that there is a direct line of descent from Al‐Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) through the Islamic State of Iraq to today’s Islamic State. They also argue that the documents provide useful information to help understand how IS is run and discuss what this means for US strategy against IS, suggesting that the ultimate lesson is that the task of defeating groups like IS is a political one.