Divided opinions on Islamic State: A culture that needs to change

What to do about the threat posed by Isis, also known as Islamic State, is now a question exercising the minds of military planners and policymakers in Westerns capitals. 

The bloody campaign waged by these Islamist fanatics in Syria and Iraq, has set alarm bells going in London, Paris, Berlin, and Washington DC.

Opinion among the experts is sharply divided. This was illustrated over the weekend, with very different approaches being recommended by Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state. Now 91, he appears to be as wedded as ever to the doctrine that war is politics by another means. He has urged President Barrack Obama to “launch an all-out attack”, saying there can’t be any more debate about fighting them. He has described the actions of Isis as “an insult to our values and to our society”, saying this demands a “very significant retaliation”. He is especially critical of Obama, alleging that under his foreign policy “we have made ourselves bystanders in the Middle East”.

One wonders would he includes Washington’s unstinting support for Israel as fitting the “bystander” model? In marked contrast, Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East programme in London, cautions that a kneejerk reaction from the West is not the way to beat Isis. You cannot defeat an ideology by military means alone. You have to change the culture in which that ideology flourishes.