Introduction

“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country
and throw it against the wall, just to show we mean business.”1 - Michael
Ledeen (Arch Neoconservative)

The Islamic State (IS), known as ISIS/ISIL or Al-Daesh in local language, was launched in
2014 with the purpose of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate. Rise of ISIS and its
strategic multilateralism is the outcome of development from insurgent groups and global
Jihadis (fighters)2. The formation of IS has been a focal point of debate among international
security scholars, who, from a variety of perspectives, have attempted to explain the driving
forces behind the rise of this Jihadi-Salafi organization 3.These accounts emphasize that the
formation of IS was the outcome of both historical and immediate factors that appeared
and/or activated in the post-Saddam Iraqi politics.

In the beginning of 2004, ISIS had over 50,000 militant forces in Syria, and about 30,000 in
Iraq4. These forces were mainly made up of the Al-qaeda militants now functioning in Iraq,
and rest of them from around the countries including second and third generation muslim
countries. The establishment of IS and its transition into a global terrorist organization owes
its origin to international environment as well as the radical ideology of its members. In
addition to personal and group level causes, the formation of IS was also an outcome of the
international affairs. Some factors rooted to the cause of origin are the US invasions of
Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and US funding of Syrian anti-regime fighters around
2010.

1
Jonah Goldberg, “Baghdad Delenda Est, Part Two,” National Review, April 23, 2002.
2
S. Yaqub Ibrahimi ‘International Relations Theory and the ‘Islamic State’, August 15, 2018<https://www.e-
ir.info/2018/10/15/international-relations-theory-and-the-islamic-state/>

3
Gambhir, H. ‘ISIS’s Global Strategy: A War game. The Institute for Study of War’ Understanding War.org
(2015, July 28). < http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Harleen%20Gambhir%20June
%202016.pdf>
4
‘Islamic State 'Has 50,000 Fighters in Syria', AlJazeera. (20 August 2014)
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/islamic-state-50000-fighters-syria-
2014819184258421392.html>
This paper is going to explain in detail the causes of origin of ISIS, the manner in which it
was fueled to become the deadliest terrorist organization in a short span of time, and how
International relations among developed and underdeveloped countries played a huge form in
its growth. Ultimately, the goal is to unburden the truth on how major big countries and their
international policies played a huge role in creating what is known as ISIS today.

ROOTS OF ISLAMIC STATE

United States of America has always wanted to ensure that there is a victory of interpretation,
and a particular viewpoint triumphs, which was the case why US invaded Afghanistan, Iraq
and other middle eastern countries5 The global War on Terrorism, started in 2001, which
target radical islamists groups started from Al-Qaeda and ended with IS. The military
humanists marketed their doctrine of preemptive military action as “Responsibility To
Protect,” or R2P. By weaponizing the discourse of human rights to justify the use of force
against governments that resisted the Washington consensus, this group of well-connected
liberals was able to stir support where the neocons could not 6. Their brand of intervention.
Whenever trouble arose, they reflexively advocated for “no-fly zones” and “safe zones”
where only American attack jets could operate, and asserted the authority to do so without
UN Security Council or US congressional approval, always in the name of saving some
group supposedly threatened with imminent destruction.

The Two Sides of Afghan Invasion

“Let’s remember here, the people we are fighting today, we funded 25 years ago and we did
it because we were locked in this struggle with the Soviet Union. There’s a very strong
argument, which is- it wasn’t a bad investment to end Soviet Union, but let’s be careful what
we sow because we will harvest “

– Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to the House Appropriations Committee, April 23,
2009.

Civilized people throughout the world are speaking out in horror—not only because our
hearts break for the women and children in Afghanistan, but also because in Afghanistan, we
5
Marwan M. Kraidy, ‘Terror, Territoriality, Temporality: Hypermedia Events in the Age of the Islamic State’,
Television and News Media, March 2017, 2.
6
Max Blumethal, The Management of Savagery, (Verso 2019) 237.
see the world the terrorists would like to impose on the rest of us”7 -
Laura Bush

The American covert war in Afghanistan helped inflame the worst refugee crisis in history,
turning Afghans into the largest refugee group in the world at the time and what Rüdiger
Schöch, a researcher for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR),
described as “victims of political instrumentalization” by the powers driving the conflict 8.
According to Schöch, the Afghans were not received in Pakistan as refugees fleeing
persecution in their own country, but rather as “partisan holy warriors in a struggle against
atheist tyranny” who were “accepted practically under the condition of their outspoken
opposition against the regime in Kabul.”9. It was this refugee group with later on was
recruited by Al-Qaeda and IS to become part of their organizations.

The people in Afghanistan viewed these big powers not as a power trying to bring a positive
change, but a forceful outside invader who tried to cast all the cultural and traditional roots
away from them, and bring about a change according to their own agenda. The differences in
how the two sides view women are enormous. When asked why they had left Afghanistan for
the refugee camps, many Afghans in Pakistan don’t talk about the bombing or land reform, or
even the suppression of Islam. What they did not like, those Afghans said recently, was that
the Communists in Kabul wanted to send their daughters to school.10

After the Russian Invasion in the late 70s and US Invasion in early 20s, A tug of war started
between the two superpowers on the soil of Afghanistan. USA did not want Aghanistan to
become a communist state therefore USA did not directly participate in the war rather put the
guns on the shoulder of Pakistan and Afghan Mujahedeen. The US provided military and
economic assistance to Pakistan. Pakistan’s intelligent agency ISI would distribute it in seven
Mujahedeen fictions fighting against the invader. Нe question is why did Pakistan get
involved in a war of others. The answer is simple that on the eastern border Pakistan had
enmity with India so Pakistan had no other option but to stop the Soviet army. So Pakistan

7
Laura Bush, “Laura Bush on Taliban Oppression of Women,” Washington Post, November 17, 2001.
8
Rudiger Schoch, Afghan Refugees in Pakistan During the 1980s: Cold War Politics and Registration Practice,
UNHCR, June 2008, unhcr.org.
9
Ibid.
10
Blumethal (n 6) 54
joined hands with the US in their proxy war against the Communists in Afghanistan. The US
provided sophisticated weapons to Afghan Mujahedeen including stinger Missiles which
were used against the USSR. In this war Russia received heavy loss both in men and kinds11.

Following its failure to achieve the central goal of the Afghan invasion, the American
military proceeded to expand its footprint across the country, establishing a semipermanent
presence and embarking on a $65 billion program to train a new Afghan army 12.
Reconstruction was earmarked for $117 billion, more than was spent on the Marshall Plan for
Europe, with hundreds of millions in kickbacks to contractors and billions for failed opium
eradication programs. The more costly the mission was, the more dedicated its generals
became. After US poured weapons, machinery and money into anti-soviet rebels in
Afghanistan, these same rebels came out of the ashes of Afghan Jihad called Taliban. They
were ethnically Pashtun learnt in the Islamic Нeological Schools called Madrassas. So within
the span of two years they captured almost 90% area of Afghanistan and consolidated their
position. Muslim countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE oficially recognized the
Taliban government.13 Pakistan wanted a friendly government in Afghanistan to expand her
trade with the central Asian Republics. On the other hand Russia Iran and India joint their
hands with the Northern Alliance which was controlling about 10% area of Afghanistan. So
after the 9/11 incident occured in the USA the responsibility was put on Saudi millionaire
Osama Bin Laden14. The USA demanded the Taliban government to hand over Bin Laden to
USA. Denying which brought another devastating war on Afghanistan. USA with the support
of coalition forces of NATO attacked on Afghanistan 15. After a little resistance the Taliban
flew away of Kabul and started guerrilla war. Hamid Kerzi was installed as the President and
all the key governmental positions were given to Northern Alliance 16

As the Ugandan scholar of international affairs Mahmood Mamdani wrote of the elements
armed by the CIA and ISI, “the right-wingers had no program outside of isolated acts of
urban terror. Until the Afghan jihad, right-wing Islamists out of power had neither the
aspiration of drawing strength from popular organization nor the possibility of marshaling

11
ibid
12
Ibid 101
13
Kenneth K (2017) Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy. Congressional Research
Service.
14
Blumethal (n 6)
15
ibid
16
Asifa Jahangir ‘Changing dynamics of south Asian balance-of power’ (2013)1 Journal of South Asian
Studies. 50-58
strength from any alternative source. The Reagan administration rescued right-wing Islamism
from this historical cul-de-sac.”17 For Brzezinski, who worried that the Soviet Union might
fill an “arc of crisis” that ran across the global South, the mujahedin and backers like Zia’s
Pakistan and the Saudi royals represented a reactionary “arc of Islamism” that could be
encouraged to provide a powerful counterweight to communist influence. He urged Carter to
“concert with Islamic countries both a propaganda campaign and a covert action campaign to
help the rebels.”18

Thanks to Saudi support, the indigenous mujahedin in Afghanistan were supplemented by

The US invasion of Afghanistan not only served the purposes of the congress, but also
offered a chance for the soldiers to revenge the Vietnam Catastrophe at the hands of Soviet-
Union. A $51 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to the University of Nebraska’s Center for Afghanistan Studies and a former Peace
Corps volunteer who directed the center, Thomas Gouttierre, produced some 4 million third-
grade textbooks that helped transform Afghan schools into jihadist indoctrination centers 20.
Introduced in 1986, the books encouraged Afghan children to gouge the eyes and amputate
the legs of Soviet soldiers.21“One group of mujahedin attacks 50 Russian soldiers. In that
attack 20 Russians are killed. How many Russians fled?” read one arithmetic question in the
textbook. An aid worker counted forty-three violent images in just 100 pages of one of the
books.22 (In a 1989 briefing report to his funders at USAID, Gouttierre argued that educating
women would anger the men whom the US depended upon as anti-Soviet proxies. “This type
of reform must be left to the Afghans to be solved at their own pace,” the University of
Nebraska academic wrote.23

17
Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, (Pantheon Books, 2004) 130.
18
Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, (Yale University Press 2002) 210.
19
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower, (Vintage Books 2006) 109–10.
20
Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, ‘From US, the ABCs of Jihad’, Washington Post, March 23, 2002. <
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/23/from-us-the-abcs-of-jihad/d079075a-3ed3-
4030-9a96-0d48f6355e54/>
21
Joel Whitney, Finks: How the CIA tricked the World Writers, (OR Books,2017) 263.
22
Blumental (n 8) 34.
23
Michael J. Berens, ‘University Helped US Reach out to Taliban’, Chicago Tribune, (October 22 2001) <
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/sns-worldtrade-university-ct-story.html>
After the Afghan war was officially over and Taliban began to rule, many fighters who joined
hands with the US and were supplied with training, weapon and financial aids now found
their way into the Islamic State through Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization headed by
Osama Bin laden who was responsible for The 9/11 attacks.

- Hands with Al Qaeda

Al-Qaeda’s patterns and dynamics are now the core of ISIS. Al-Qaeda, before ISIS was the
biggest and the most important terrorist organization in the world Specifically, three key
innovations on the part of Al Qaeda – the steadied transnational broadcast of non-state
violence, the militarization of radical Islamism and the professionalization of terrorist
operations, combined with the dissemination of operational centers of gravity and a deft use
of information technology have cumulatively set the stage for IS to emerge lethally in the
way it has in the wake of Al Qaeda’s foundational actions. IS’s subsequent strength resided
not merely in its behavioral dimensions and its own industrious strategy and operations, but
equally and fundamentally in the important legacy of the violence matrix set by Al Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda and its head, Osama Bin Laden always focused on resonating as a “moraly leader”
whose fights are defensive jihad against the western civilization. “This is a defensive jihad to
protect our land and people”24. He chose to define the aggression as a symbolic one against
the ummah, and framed some symbolic acts as acts of aggression. Jihadis from Al-Qaeda
believe in an ideology of redemption, designed to protect the Islamic world from its own
destruction, not to establish a caliphate at any cost 25. This form of Jihad was later on
embodied by Zawahiri- the founder of Daesh.

The proliferation and successes of jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria can be considered as a
backlash of the violent repression of the Syrian revolution 26 . At its beginning, experts were
noticing the weak role of those groups in the leading of the uprising 27. The landscape of the
insurgency slowly changed due to different political evolutions. In 2014, the Islamic State
became strong enough to declare its own caliphate, led by Umar al-Baghdadi, a long-run
jihadi, already present when al-Zarqawi created the Islamic State in Iraq in 2006. Then, he
swore allegiance to Al-Qaeda, as did Julani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch

24
Interview with Hamid Mir (Ausaf), 12 November 2001, p. 141
25
Jeevan Deol et Zaheer Kazmi (eds.), Contextualising Jihadi thought, (CUP 2013) 54
26
Charles R. Lister, ‘The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency’,
(Oxford, Oxford University Press 2015) 500
27
Thomas Pierret, « Syria ‘Strange Politics: Revolution in the Islam’ (2011) Hiver, n o 4, 879
of the Islamic State. When the former proclaimed its own caliphate, and ordered al-Nusra to
join his side, a conflict broke out, known by the jihadis as the fitna 28. After this conflict, Al-
Qaeda and Al- Daesh (ISIS) did not reconcile and were sowrn enemies.

Even though today, the two biggest terrorist organizations are not together, and have
officially declared enmity, it cannot be ignored that the foundation and origin of Daesh rests
strongly upon the moral, structural and ethical support of Al-Qaeda in the start. The fighters
who were left after the death of Bin Laden, also went to join the Syrian Jihad, which later on
came into the form of Daesh.

The Iraq Invasion

“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country
and throw it against the wall, just to show we mean business.” 29
- Michael Ledeen (Arch Neoconservative)

ISIS has its roots in the Sunni/Baathist-dominated Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein 30 which
was one of the largest armies in the world before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003." After
the defeat of the Baathist regime, members of the Baathist party were banned from
participating in the army or other government positions. 31 Dispossessed, marginalized, and
subjugated under the U.S. occupation and subsequent Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government of
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the former Sunni army personnel launched a protracted
rebellion, with the insurgents taking on the name "al- Qaeda in Iraq" and later changing it to
the "Islamic State of Iraq"(ISI).32

In 2001, around 200,000 American and 50,000 British soldiers marched into Iraq, which
would later on turn into one of the worst ciris in History leading to the formation of multiple
terrorist organizations and unsnarling powers in Iraq and other Muslim countries. Around

28
Lister (n 26)
29
Jonah Goldberg, “Baghdad Delenda Est, Part Two,” National Review, April 23, 2002.
30
Rashid (n 18) 35
31
ibid
32
ibid
250,000 tonnes of ammunition was disappeared from the country during this time 33The
removal of Saddam’s government fueled chaos almost immediately, with irreplaceable
antiquities looted from the National Museum of Iraq while Defense Secretary Rumsfeld
directed troops to protect the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. “Freedom’s untidy,” Rumsfeld grumbled
in response to critics34.

After US captured Saddam, John Nixon, the Iraq specialist and CIA analyst deposed the
dictator. Wahhabism is going to spread in the Arab nation and probably faster than anyone
expects. And the reason why is that people view Wahhabism as an idea and a struggle,” 35
Saddam told Nixon in one interrogation session. “Iraq will be a battlefield for anyone who
wants to carry arms against America,” he continued. “And now there is an actual battlefield
for face-to-face confrontation.”36 He considered himself as the force who kept wahabbism
and radical islamists under control, thereby providing stability to the region. US however
considered Iraq as a threat to democracy apparently, and due to other financial reasons, it
found it feasible to invade Iraq for its sources and imposing its own ideology into the state,
without taking into consideration thr after affects of it. “At the height of the Cold War, we
supported freedom fighters in Asia, Africa and Latin America willing to fight and die for a
democratic future. We can and should do the same now in Iraq,” said Republican senator
Trent Lott in his argument for the bill’s passage.

Just as Saddam warned, the chaos brought by the invasion was electrifying religious
extremists on both sides of the conflict, enabling Christian and Islamic fanatics to advance
their messianic aims from whatever territory they could control.37

US invasion Of Libya

After successfully invading Afghanistan and Iraq, the next American regime change came in
Libya. The leader of Libya, Gaddafi, like Saddam has been the source of this invasion.

33
John Nixon, Debriefing the President, (Penguin Books 2016) 4.

34
Pamela Hess, ‘Rumsfeld: Looting Is Transition to Freedom,’ UPI < https://www.upi.com/Defense-
News/2003/04/11/Rumsfeld-Looting-is-transition-to-freedom/63821050097983/> April 11, 2003.
35
Nixon (n 33)
36
Jeffrey Goldberg, ‘Hillary Clinton: ‘Failure’ to Help Syrian Rebels Led to the Rise of ISIS ’ The Atlantic <
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/hillary-clinton-failure-to-help-syrian-rebels-led-
to-the-rise-of-isis/375832/> ( August 10 2014)
37
Max Blumenthal, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” Salon.com, April 15, 2003.
 March 17, 2011, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973, spearheaded by the
administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, authorizing military intervention in Libya.
The goal, Obama explained, was to save the lives of peaceful, pro-democracy protesters who
found themselves the target of a crackdown by Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. Not
only did Qaddafi endanger the momentum of the nascent Arab Spring, which had recently
swept away authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, but he also was poised to commit a
bloodbath in the Libyan city where the uprising had started, said the president. “We knew
that if we waited one more day, Benghazi—a city nearly the size of Charlotte—could suffer a
massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the
world,” Obama declared. 38

Gaddafi tried his best to obtain the support and normalize relations with the best by
abandoning his nuclear program and handing over Libya’s chemical weapons stockpiles.
Gaddafi’s government even took out a contract with a lobbying firm in Boston, the Monitor
Group, to “introduce to Libya important international figures that will influence other
nations’ policies towards the country.” 39Academics and elite policymakers like Anne-Marie
Slaughter were junketed to the country and came away with mostly positive impressions.40

Even though America does not accept its responsibility, it has been repeatedly concluded that
the invasion of Libya led to a failed state which eventually led to rise Islamic radical forces
that ultimately joined hands with ISIS. The Obama administration’s war for “universal
values” had established a failed state where the vulnerable populations that its military
humanists like Samantha Power had sworn a responsibility to protect were hunted by
revanchist warlords. And there was no clear path out of the abyss. 41 Later on, Top US
officials accepted that the public officers looted the oil reserves that oversaw the 2011 regime
change. Later on, according to UN, it became a “living hell-hole”, especially for women. 42As
in Iraq, where even former opponents of Saddam Hussein had become nostalgic for the
relative stability he guaranteed, many Libyans had begun to pine for the days of Gaddafi. “I

38
Alan J. Kuperman ‘Obama’s Libya Debacle: How a well meaning intervention resulted in Failure, Foreign
Affairs <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/libya/2019-02-18/obamas-libya-debacle> (April 2015)
39
Paresh Dave, ‘Gaddafi Paid Millions to Spin His Image in American Media’, Annenberg Media Center,
(March 3,2011) <neontommy.com>
40
Aron Klein, ‘Hillary’s Close Adviser Caught in Libya Scandal’, WordNet-Daily, (March 20 2011)
41
Max Blumenthal, ‘Samantha Power, Obama’s Atrocity Enabler’, AlterNet, October 27, 2014.
42
Karen McVeigh, ‘Refugee Women and Children ‘Beaten, Raped and Starved in Libya Hellholes’, Guardian,
< https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/28/refugee-women-and-children-beaten-raped-and-
starved-in-libyan-hellholes >(February 28 2017)
 43
hate to say it but our life was better under the previous regime,” Fayza al-Naas, a
pharmacist in Tripoli, told Agence France-Presse. While Gaddafi’s Green Movement was
attempting a comeback, Libya’s Western-imposed rulers continued to lay waste to the
country.

The local dynamics of Libya, started by US invasion and eventually worsened by hardcore
Islamists in the county, led to a vacuum which gave a nice territory for Islamic state to rise.
The leader of ISIS, Baghdadi endorsed the Libyan IS provinces in 2014. 44 After carrying out
its first attack on a tourist hotel in 201445, ISIS exponentially consolidated its power in 2015.
However, by mid-2015, local jihadi groups had expelled IS from its main stronghold in Derna
with the aim of monopolizing their control. However, lack of government and internal
conflicts enabled IS to make Libya a favorable training ground, which it used later on,
specially the northeastern region which bordered Egypt, which enabled the group to attack
different parts of the world.46

UN as Peacekeeping Force

UN was enacted in 1945, after the horrors of World Wars made the world realize the importance of
peaceful co-operation and settlement. UN has enacted the principles of peaceful settlement in UN
charter, which prohibits use of force against any other nation. However, UN has often transgressed
these principles and allowed the use of force, specially by bigger powers on certain terms and for
certain purposes.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 created a so called Al-Qaeda Sanctions
Committee, which grouped it as a terrorist entity, and imposed sanctions on their travel, funding, arms
and shipments. This move was followed when Al-Qaeda rose to power under the leadership of Osama
Bin Laden. In an independent inquiry by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees

43
“War-weary Libyans Miss Life under Gaddafi,” AFR, businessinsider.com ( 17TH Oct 2016)
44
Emily Estelle & Katherine Zimmermann, ‘Backgrounder: Fighting Forces in Libya”, AEI’s Critical Threats
Project’, (3 March 2016)
45
Suliman Ali Zway & David Kirkpatrick, ‘Group Linked to ISIS Says It’s Behind Assault on Libyan Hotel’,
The New York Times <, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/world/middleeast/islamic-statetripoli-libya-
terrorattack.html> (2015)

46
Estelle & Zimmermann, ‘Backgrounder”; Andrew Engel, “The Islamic State’s Expansion in Libya’,
PolicyWatch 2371, (11 February 2015)
Jonathan Stevenson, ‘Confronting Failed Government and the Islamic State in Libya’, Strategic Comments 22:1,
IISS (2 March 2016)
(UNHCR), it described the Afghans as “victims of political instrumentalization” by the powers
driving the conflict. According to it, the Afghans were not received in Pakistan as refugees fleeing
persecution in their own country, but rather as “partisan holy warriors in a struggle against atheist
tyranny” who were “accepted practically under the condition of their outspoken opposition against the
regime in Kabul.”47This report concluded that “even though UNHCR confines its humanitarian
program to persons of its concern, there is ample evidence that the [Pakistani] government as the
operational partner is permitting, by acts of commission or omission, humanitarian assistance to flow
into the hands of freedom fighters participating in the ‘Holy Jehad.’” 48. Here, it can be seen that even
though UN was ready to acknowledge the role of Pakistan in aiding Taliban fighters, it did not
conduct any inquiry into the transgressions performed by US and the secret funding US gave to anti-
Russian regime rebels in order to promote insurgency, the proof of which have been given in the
section above49.

US invaded Iraq without UN’s authorization, but no steps were taken against the country because of
its abnormal influence on the organization. Expressing regret that diplomacy had failed to resolve
the question of Iraq’s disarmament, speakers emphasized that the current war, carried out without
Council authorization, was a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.   Many
stressed they could not understand how the Council could remain silent in the face of the
aggression by two of its permanent members against another United Nations Member State. 50

In an effort to "degrade and defeat "ISIS, beginning in August 2014 the United States,
assisted by a handful of other Western and Arab countries, launched thousands of bombing
sorties and cruise missile attacks against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria51While the Iraqi
government has consented to foreign military action against ISIS within Iraq, the Syrian
government did not.52 Rather, Syria protested that the air strikes in Syrian territory were an
unjustifiable violation of international law.53 The justification was given by United States as
the airstrikes being a right to use force in failed states in terms of humanitarian
intervention54.Use of force in self-defense has traditionally not been viewed as lawful against

47
Rudiger Schoch, Afghan Refugees in Pakistan During the 1980s: Cold War Politics and Registration Practice,
UNHCR, June 2008, <unhcr.org>
48
ibid
49
See The Two sides of Afghan Invasion, Supra P.
50
https://www.un.org/press/en/2003/sc7705.doc.htm
51
Claire Mills et al., ISIS/DAESH: THE MILITARY RESPONSE IN IRAQ AND SYRIA 4-7 (2015).
52
Ben Smith, ISIS AND THE SECTARIAN CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST 55 (2015) (
53
Id.
54
Letter from Samantha J. Power, Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, to Ban
Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (Sept. 23, 2014), available at
https://www.justsecurity.org/15436/war-powers-resolution-article-51-letters-force-syria-isil-khorasan
non-state actors in a third state unless they are under the effective control of that state, 55 but
the United States has argued that since the 9/11 attacks such force can be justified where a
government is unable or unwilling to suppress the threat posed by the non-state actors
operating within its borders.56This view was not, however, accepted by Russia, China, or
even the United Kingdom, which initially refused to join the United States in bombing ISIS
targets in Syria.57 US however successfully managed to blame Russia and China for the
airstrikes In Syria, a statement which was endorsed by UN.58

It has always been observed, that UN has failed in checking the transgressions by the United States
and has favored the country against other powers, specially Russia. This continued favor is what led
US and other big countries into transgressing the boundaries of smaller nations, ultimately leading to
the worlds biggest refugee crisis and formation of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization,
ISIS.

ISIS Today

By the end of 2017, US and its allies were able to clear ISIS from most of the land in Syria,
prominently to the East of Euphrates. In 2019, a small area left to be cleared along Syria’s
southeastern border was taken by a one and a half month battle, which eventually marked the
last nail in the coffin of ISIS. 59 According to US military, Syrian Defense Forces were largely
benefitted from US support, airstrikes, military infrastructure and its energy resources 60. The

group/[https://perma.cc/2Z37-LHPCJ.

55
Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicar. v.
U.S.), 1986 I.C.J. 14, ¶ 191 (June 27), http://www.icjcij.
org/docket/files/70/6503.pdf [https://perma.cc/J4LN-6EJP];
56
See Ashley S. Deeks, Unwilling or Unable: Toward a Normative
Framework for Extraterritorial Self-Defense, 52 VA. J. INT'L L. 483, 487
(2012).
57
Note 4 and Written Evidence from the Rt Hon
Hugh Robertson MP, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office to the Foreign Affairs Committee on humanitarian intervention
and the responsibility to protect, WWW.PARLIAMENT.UK (Jan. 14, 2014),
available at
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmdfence/582/
58205.htm [https://perma.cc/4TBS-KAW8].
58
https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-the-situation-in-syria-11/
59
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/world/middleeast/isis-syria-caliphate.html
60
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/world/middleeast/us-backed-militia-opens-drive-on-isis-capital-in-
syria.html
American version of the ISIS history is aptly described by Frolov, The main role in routing
ISIS was played by the U.S.-led international coalition: First, it stopped the ISIS offensive in
Iraq in summer 2014 and saved Syrian Kurds from complete annihilation, and then—without
direct help from Russia (except aircraft supplies to the Iraqi Air Force)—freed Iraq, including
Mosul with its population of several million. In 2017, after thorough preparations, [the
coalition] routed ISIS in its capital, Raqqa …  and cleared terrorists from the entire eastern
bank of the Euphrates, as well as southwestern Syria. While the U.S. was fighting ISIS,
Russia was left free to do away with Assad’s main enemies.” 61 The reality of who armed the
rebels and who led to the rise of ISIS by feeling them with modern machinery and radical
insurgencies, is a question that America does not wish to answer.

By 2019, ISIS did lose control over most of its territories, but it is incorrect to say that they
have been defeated totally. In the past years, we have seen brutal terrorists’ attacks around the
globe, specially in areas that seemed to be “liberated” by the US. Between the summer of
2018 and late March 2019, ISIS carried out at least 250 attacks in areas outside its control in
Syria, according to a New York Times estimate 62. In Iraq, the numbers seem to be much
higher: Research by the Combating Terrorism Center identified 1,271 attacks there by ISIS in
the first months of 2018 alone, including a twin suicide bombing in Baghdad that left 38 dead
and over 100 wounded.63. According to ISW; a recent Pentagon report concurred, saying that
ISIS—also known as ISIL and IS—has now “solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq” and
is also “resurgent in Syria.” ISIS fighters have taken refuge in Iraq’s “most forbidding
terrain,”64 where government control is tenuous at best, “including mountains and caves,
remote desert, orchards, river groves and islands,” as well as in “destroyed and abandoned
villages,” according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, or ICG.65

ISIS fighters are still present in Syria, finding shelter in its caves and rocky outcroppings,
staging regular attacks on Syrian Military, including in Raqqa and Hasakah 66. In these regions
specially, ISIS is believed to have a good network hidden from the forces, and has managed

61
frolov, Vladimir, “What to make of Putin’s trip to Syria?,” Republic.ru, Dec. 12, 2017, as translated in “The
Current Digest of the Russian Press,” Vol.69, No.50, pp. 9-10.
62
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/23/world/middleeast/isis-syria-defeated.html?
mtrref=www.russiamatters.org&gwh=B08B9775105AEE5FB070809EBED10BCC&gwt=pay&assetType=RE
GIWALL
63
https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CTC-SENTINEL-122018.pdf
64
https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/207-averting-an-isis-resurgence.pdf
65
http://www.understandingwar.org/report/isiss-second-comeback-assessing-next-isis-insurgency
66
Pg 23
to establish a rural network on the outskirts of provinces like Idlib 67. According to a Pentagon
report, US’s withdrawal from the area has led into its strengthening and gathering foothold
again in Syria and Iraq68.

CONCLUSION

In this project, We have tried to highlight the role of United States of America in brining
instability in the regions of Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, which has ultimately led to
the formation of terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, and The Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria. Powers like Russia and United States have utilized their dominant position in the world
international relations, to pursue their interests, and have successfully managed to escape the
scrutiny of organizations like UN, due to their resources and contribution. No Doubt, the
whole picture is not painted to show US in a bad light, and there are efforts done by big
countries in order to bring peace and stability in Syria or Afghanistan. However, the problem
remains that despite having catastrophic results with the Afghanistan invasion, and ultimately
formation of Al-Qaeda and Taliban as its result, the dominant countries like US do not seem
deterred by taking the same step in some other country.

In order to establish and maintain its supremacy, western powers have time and again
encroached upon the sovereignty of smaller countries, thereby creating a lawless state filled
with men greedy of power in the vacuum created by the western countries. It is a form on
neo-colonization, where a cultural hegemony is ought to be established, and any sovereign
resisting such change is brough down to its knees and forced to forego its sovereignty. It is
time to stop the powers from interfering in the working of smaller countries. It is time to
prevent another ISIS from being made.

67
ibid
68
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/19/politics/pentagon-report-syria-turkey-ceasefire/index.ht