THE SOUTHERN TALKS #11: How ISIS Fights - Then and Now

The NATO Strategic Direction-South Hub welcomed Professor Omar Ashouri to The Southern Talks where he discussed the military tactics of State and NON-State actors in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

He touches on the ways in which State (Russia) and Non-State groups (ISIS, HAMAS) have conducted their military operations in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. 

This Southern Talks is of an hour with a section dedicated to Q&A.

The YouTube video is timestamped / divided into chapters for easy viewing.

SME Bio

Dr. Omar Ashour is a professor of Security & Military Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the Founder of the Security Studies Graduate Programmes in the DI and the Director of the Strategic Studies Unit at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS). He is an Honorary Professor at the Security and Strategy Institute at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and a Non-Resident Honorary Fellow at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (Ukraine). He was a tenured faculty member at the University of Exeter and previously served as a senior consultant for the United Nations on counterterrorism, security sector reform, de-radicalization and defence affairs. 

He specialises in small state defence; combat and military effectiveness; military adaptations, innovations and transformations by state forces and non-state armed actors; weapon systems analysis; counterinsurgency and counterterrorism; and collective de-radicalization. 

He is the author of ‘How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt’ and The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements. He is the editor of Bullets to Ballots: Collective De-Radicalisation of Armed Movements (translated to Arabic and Ukrainian). 

He has also written hundreds of op-eds in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Globe and Mail, al-Jazeera.net, CNN.com, Project Syndicate, The Independent, The Middle East Eye and others. He is a regular security and defence analyst in various Arab and international broadcasters. His current research project is focused on comparative combat effectiveness and hybrid warfare with a focus on the wars on Ukraine.

Video Chapter

• 00:00 Intro 
• 06:40 Terrorism in Warfare 
• 13:32 Tactics on the Ground
• 17:50 What is Unique about IS Combat Performance
• 23:35 Hamas Attack 7th Oct 2023
• 30:03 Russian Hybrid Warfare 
• 38:29 Syria - Future

© NATO Strategic Direction South HUB

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