This START Fact Sheet examines the evolution of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by enumerating the relationships the terrorist organization has held since 2004. The report profiles the group’s:
- adversarial relationships;
- adversarial relationships that were previously positive; and
- collaborative relationships.
The data is drawn from news reports and from START’s Big Allied and Dangerous (BAAD) Project, which focuses on the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive database of terrorist organizational characteristics and their relationship to prominent event, insurgency and country-level datasets. The project is led by START investigators Victor Asal and R. Karl Rethemeyer through the Project of Violent Conflict at Rockefeller College, University at Albany-SUNY.
Publication Information
Simonelli, Corina. 2014. "The Evolution of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL): Relationships 2004-2014." START Fact Sheet. College Park, Maryland. June. http://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_EvolutionofISILRelationships_FactSheet_June2014.pdf