Attack the fundamentals of their existence to defeat the ISIS, says Benedetta Berti, Israel’s most noted security analyst

ISIS has waged a war in the Middle East based on their religious ideologies. ISIS has been declared one of the most dangerous threats to the world now. While France is still recovering from the Paris attacks and people in Baghdad and Beirut are trying desperately to escape from its grip, the world is fighting restlessly to combat its next attack. But is military intervention enough to defeat the group especially when they are supported by states militarily and quite powerfully too?

“Military intervention alone is only going to make sure that the group is hit and they are going to lose some weapons and some people. But at the end of the day, the ideologies are still there, the territorial control is there and they are going to keep attracting people,” said Benedetta Berti, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University and an expert on political violence, civil war and security. She also studies conflicts to understand how these groups can be defeated through non-violent confrontations.

She studies the war and collects data to advise the international organisations on policies on how to better engage with the armed non-state actors, policies for humanitarian intervention in conflicts and how to do deal with armed groups in ground.

One needs to study how these groups have changed and how these changes can be used for more effective humanitarian interventions. It is about understanding how governance is changing in the world, to weaken the groups in their own game.

Benedetta spoke to Business Insider about the ways to tackle these groups and how to attack the fundamentals of their existence

How can the international organisations carry out confrontations with the armed non-state actors?

To address the question one need to ask this question first-Why are we in confrontation?

As the state is in war, there is a situation of fragility which creates a vacuum. The state is neither willing nor has the ability to provide security, to ensure civil rights and provide basic services. In the absence of order, in the absence of a state, alternative is to step in and provide what the state is not providing.

We as international community are trying to understand how to deal with non-states, how do we talk to them, how do we engage them, how do we negotiate when we have to and how do we compel them when we have to. It is about understanding how governance is changing in the world.

The main idea is to carry out non-violent confrontations with these armed non-state actors.

How can they fight non-violently against the religious ideologies of these groups, especially as their religious ideologies, which are their war ideologies too, goes against non-violence? How can the concerned parties convince them?

It really depends on the group. If you are an international organisation and you work in Syria, one of the biggest questions you have to face is that there are millions of people that need humanitarian assistance but they can’t get it because they are controlled by rebel groups, by ISIS and they would not let international community go through. So one of the questions I try to understand is what one can offer to these groups to make them allow us to deliver humanitarian assistance. Sometimes it is power, sometimes it is security guarantee and sometimes it’s just not possible. For example ISIS has no intention of cooperating with the international community.

The international community must evaluate both sides of the coin before delivering assistance. If they cooperate with them, they run the risk to make them stronger. If they don’t cooperate with them, then millions of people who are in their control won’t get the assistance they need to survive. So it is a very difficult question.

But we must also weigh the fact that ISIS would never willingly agree to a round table conference with the international communities. So, what’s the way out to communicate with them and make them agree for non-violent confrontation?

I am not trying to make them sit in a round table conference with the international community as it doesn’t make sense. With other groups, I do that but it does not work with ISIS. They have no interest in doing so and their agenda does not leave much room for cooperation. In that case, the strategy is not how to engage them, but how to weaken them. There’s many different ways. I am not saying that when it comes to ISIS, it is irrelevant to target them militarily. I am saying that it alone is not going to do it. You also have to work on the context.

For example in Syria and Iraq, one needs to see how ISIS recruits people. As the area is in the middle of a war, there are few jobs available and if one is a Syrian man, one of the few jobs he can get is that of a fighter. It is also one of the groups that pay the most. This is a very basic incentive. So if we want to make sure that less people has the motivation to go to them, we have to work on a restoration alternative that would diminish the appeal. It is about economic incentives.

One also needs to work on the funding and make sure the group is not successful to raise fund. This is difficult as the states need to cooperate too. Their channels need to be cut. The ISIS sells oil, natural resources and archaeological artifacts. It is important to block these kinds of transactions which form a major part of their funds.

They also have a very effective communication and marketing strategy. The international community also have to think how to counter that through media, dialogues and how to weaken their hearts and minds while they are trying to control and provide alternative narratives.

There are a lot on political, social, cultural level that should be done in addition to military interventions because this alone is only going to make sure that the group is hit and they are going to lose some weapons and some people. But at the end of the day, the ideologies are still there, the territorial control is there and they are going to keep attracting people. So it is not the way to put an end to them.

So, what are the various channels through which ISIS get their arms and funds?

Today ISIS is the wealthiest armed organisation in the world. They are worth more than $2 billion dollars. How they have all this money is a combination of various channels.

First, now that they have territory of control, they can, like a state, exert taxation on the citizens. So they gain money by extracting revenues, just like any other states.

On top of that they control substantial oil resources and oil refineries. So they also sell oil in the black market in Turkey and Syria. They made quite a bit of money by selling oil.

Also, they were very big in the market of kidnapping and getting very high ransoms. That’s how they used to fund themselves in the past. Now it constitutes a very small portion of what they do.

They also control natural resources like grains and sell them. If you see how they function, when they were in Syria and Iraq, they gained control over archaeological sites. We had seen in the media and in the news that they destroyed the main monuments. But also it is true that they did not destroy the smaller archaeological monuments. They sell that in the black market and extract quite a lot of money out of that. So when you take a look at these things together, you will see how they are financially independent. That is a big problem for the international community.

They buy the weapons in the black market. A lot of their military rise happened in the summer of 2014 when they took over the city of Mosul in Iraq. Back then when they took over the city, when the Iraqi army left behind a substantial amount of weapons before leaving the city that ISIS is now using. Also, when they left, ISIS robbed all the banks in the city. From there they got a few $100 million. When you include everything together, they are quite wealthy.

(Image credits: Reuters)