The Briefing Room - Does IS Need a State?

What will happen if the Islamic State loses its state?

The so-called Islamic State is rapidly losing territory, money and fighters in both Iraq and Syria. Iraqi government troops, supported by US and British special forces, have launched an offensive to take back the city of Mosul and an assault on the group's de facto capital city - Raqqa in Syria - is expected by the end of the year.

Can the group continue to attract jihadi fighters from around the world and inspire attacks in its name, or will it be permanently weakened by the loss of its 'caliphate'?

If so, could other terrorist organisations benefit from the vacuum it leaves behind?

David Aaronovitch speaks to a range of experts and asks - can Islamic State be defeated and if so, what happens next?

Guests include:

Columb Strack, Senior Analyst, Middle East & North Africa at IHS Consulting

Charlie Winter, Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR)

Hassan Hassan, Senior Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror

Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic at the University of Oxford

Clint Watts, Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Program on the Middle East and former FBI Special Agent

Producer: China Collins
Research: Serena Tarling.

Published on Thursday, 23rd February 2017.

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