The Islamic State's Path to the Caliphate

The Islamic State is best understood not as an ideological terrorist group but as a hybrid criminal syndicate that uses terrorism instrumentally.

The Islamic State separated itself from its peers by the route it took to the Caliphate. The paper traces an evolution into a hybrid criminal-terrorist organization — one that finances territorial control through illicit activity and deploys spectacular violence as an entry tactic rather than as an end in itself.