Russia and Iran might need to cooperate with the West to defeat Islamic State

Russia and Iran may need to join a ‘coalition of the willing’ so they can work with the West and finally rid the world of the scourge of Islamic State, writes Richard N. Haass

The attacks in Paris by individuals associated with the Islamic State (IS), coming on the heels of bombings in Beirut and the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula, reinforce the reality that the terrorist threat has entered a new and even more dangerous phase.

Why IS decided to stage its attacks now is a matter for conjecture; it may well be that it is going global to compensate for its recent loss of territory in Iraq.