Summary and Analysis of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS: Based on the Book by Joby Warrick

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So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Joby Warrick’s book.
 
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This short summary and analysis of Black Flags includes:
 

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter overviews
• Profiles of the main characters
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

 
About Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick:
 
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Joby Warrick has written an authoritative account of the origins and rapid ascent of the largest global terrorist organization today: the Islamic State.
 
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with US and Middle Eastern intelligence officials, as well as two decades of experience covering global terrorism, Warrick presents portraits of the group’s leadership, including the “godfather” of ISIS, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and of its current leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
 
Warrick explains the historical context and the sectarian struggles behind the rise of the Islamic State, the missteps by US intelligence that aided it, and the heroic work by intelligence and military officials that have fought against it. His work explains the appeal of ISIS and the threat it poses to the Middle East and global peace.
 
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504044820

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Book preview

Contents

Context

Overview

Summary

Timeline

Cast of Characters

Direct Quotes and Analysis

Trivia

What’s That Word?

Critical Response

About Joby Warrick

For Your Information

Bibliography

Copyright

Context

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick, was published in 2015, as the Islamic State continued its expansion in Iraq and Syria, with local governments unable to contain it and the United States unwilling to intervene militarily. Despite the existential threat posed by ISIS and the widely broadcast beheadings of American journalists and other captives, Washington refused to make a commitment to another war in the Middle East.

However, the events of 2015 showed that ISIS’s ambitions were not limited to carving out a caliphate from the fractious territories of Iraq and Syria. The two major terrorist attacks in Paris that year, and the ones that followed in Belgium and Germany, made clear that ISIS had goals beyond Iraq and the Levant: It was now appealing to disaffected Muslims around the world to become volunteers in a worldwide jihad, with brutality and suicide as its weapons and innocent civilians as its enemy.

Other authors, notably Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower, have explained the historical origins of Islamic fundamentalism in great detail. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the godfather of the Islamic State, was portrayed in depth by French journalist Jean-Charles Brisard in his 2005 biography Al-Zarqawi: The New Face of al-Qaeda. However, no writer has described the evolution of ISIS, or the missteps by US intelligence that contributed to it, in such fascinating detail as Warrick. For this reason, Black Flags is essential reading for understanding the global terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State.

Overview

In Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Joby Warrick has written a compelling and authoritative account of the birth of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a story that combines the quick pace and mounting suspense of a thriller with the deep knowledge and analysis of first-rate journalism. More than just a recounting of headline events, Black Flags is a study of the personalities and the context that engendered ISIS—in the author’s words, the first terrorist organization that is a de facto state—and of the men and women who have sought to contain it.

Drawing on extensive interviews with US intelligence and military officials, and counterterrorism experts in Jordan, Warrick tells how the jihadists