Core anti-ISIS coalition meets in Washington amid Mosul liberation

Representatives from the core group of 24 states taking the fight to ISIS will meet in Washington DC today. The meeting comes after a day of talks between all 72 members of the Global Coalition.

The delegates might be forgiven for using today’s summit to pat each other on the back. Over the past two months, ISIS has been expelled from Mosul—once Iraq’s second largest city—and finds its last remaining stronghold, Raqqa, under siege. Meanwhile, unverified reports continue to emerge that enigmatic leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead—likely killed in a Russian airstrike in late May.

But despite its relative weakness, ISIS remains a threat to weak governments. The group continues to have a small but deadly presence in Libya, Yemen and Egypt’s Sinai region, while its affiliates in West Africa and Southeast Asia continue to torment communities. While ISIS finds it increasingly difficult to operate like a de-facto state, it has further decentralised its operations and resorted to scorched earth tactics which will wreak havoc long after its eventual defeat.

Much work remains for the 24 states meeting today in DC.

Delve deeper: Apps, YouTube and Twitter: ISIS and the internet (June 2016)

Simon Papagiorcopulo

Simon is the founder of Foreign Brief who served as managing director from 2015 to 2021. A lawyer by training, Simon has worked as an analyst and adviser in the private sector and government. Simon’s desire to help clients understand global developments in a contextualised way underpinned the establishment of Foreign Brief. This aspiration remains the organisation’s driving principle.