The bleeding crescent

Abstract EN

During the last two years, the fertile crescent witnessed the emergence of a very extreme and powerful Islamic group which relied on terrorist actions to achieve its ultimate goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the middle east.

this group is called ‘the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria’ (ISIS), and it broke away from ‘al-Qaeda network in Mesopotamia’.

by June 2014, ISIS succeeded in putting its control over a territory, in both Iraq and Syria, equal to that of the united kingdom.

a severe Islamic law has been applied to the inhabitants of the territories seized by ISIS.

furthermore, the group is intending to expand its control to wherever it can do.

hence, it imposes a serious threat to the entire region.

this research aims at examining and explaining the factors which contributed to the emergence of this dangerous group.

in accordance with the ‘theory of regional complex’ (TRC), the research deals with the factors and actors responsible for the conflict in the fertile crescent on four levels; domestic, sub-regional, regional and global.

in order to achieve a comprehensive analysis of the conflict, the research focuses on the economic and societal factors in addition to the political ones which deepen the conflict.

it is concluded that the ethnic divisions of the region’s societies, the authoritarian characteristics of the Syrian political regime and the ethnically divided government in Iraq are the most important factors behind the birth and success of ISIS on the domestic level.

the struggle for political power and economic interests are the most influential factors for the strength and expansion of this group on the regional and global levels.