About the author(s):
Rogier is a researcher at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) and works at the Dutch National Prosecutor’s Office. He holds LL.M-degrees from Utrecht University and the University of Nottingham. Before taking up his current positions, he was an associate legal officer in Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and a legal adviser at the International Humanitarian Law Division of the Netherlands Red Cross.
Rogier is an adjunct-lecturer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he teaches international humanitarian law, and he co-convenes the Hague Initiative for Law and Armed Conflict.
Who are Isis? A terror group too extreme even for al-Qaida
Iraq crisis Q & A: Who or what is ISIS? Is it part of al-Qaeda?
The Beginning of a Caliphate: The Spread of ISIS, in Five Maps
Is the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” a Real Country Now?
The fierce ambition of ISIL’s Baghdadi
Resurgent violence underscores morphing of al Qaeda threat
ISIS: The first terror group to build an Islamic state?
Iraq’s Terrorists Are Becoming a Full-Blown Army
Thank you for the useful overview on ISIS. I have two questions relating to this organisation – I’m not sure if this is the right forum to ask them, but I thought I could give it a shot.
Firstly, I was wondering whether ISIS be considered a non-state armed actor (rather than terrorists), seeing that it seems to have reached the threshold of intensity and organization and has a political objective? Secondly, how should this conflict (ISIS v. Iraq and ISIS v. Syria) be classified? It probably best fits the NIAC profile, however, seeing that ISIS considers itself to be a state and controls significant territory, could the conflict be categorized as IAC?