The book The Management of Savagery is a teaching manual of the so-called Islamic State, aka ISIS. It defines the techniques of deploying terror. The book outlines how a group of militants could seize land and establish their own self-governing Islamic state. It lays out how to create small pockets of territorial control and from there to establish a caliphate. ISIS has become notorious with its sectarian violence and atrocities. Its meteoric rise took Washington and all the experts by surprise. Initially, Obama dismissed them as the equivalent of a JV, junior varsity, an amateur basketball team. The media fail to pose the crucial questions: What fuels ISIS? What makes it tick? How does U.S. policy in the Middle East and that of its regional allies contribute to the instability that ISIS thrives on? What’s the relationship between Arab jails and American jets?
Rami Khouri is a well-known journalist based in Beirut. His articles are syndicated in major newspapers around the world. He was the former director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. He is recipient of the Pax Christi International Peace Award for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.