Patrick Cockburn and the Rise of Islamic State

22 mrt 2015

Out of the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring and Syria, a new threat emerges. While Al Qaeda is weakened, new jihadi movements, especially ISIS, are starting to emerge. The capture of Mosul on June 10, 2014 and the declaration of the caliphate spanning the Iraqi–Syrian border, show that these movements are a new serious territorial power, that can not be ignored.

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Patrick Cockburn is the journalist who was aware of the rise of these movements, while many signs were being missed by Western politicians, the media, and the public. In his latest book, he describes the rise of the jihadi movements.

When he started writing this book he particularly wanted to trace the swift rise of ISIS, the growing anger of the Sunni community in Iraq, and the government ’s inability to combat a powerful new insurgency. With that, he wanted to stress that the armed opposition in Syria was now dominated by jihadi movements while the moderates, whom the West is seeking to boost, have little influence on the ground. His expactations, formulated in the book, turned soon out to be true.

During the program Patrick Cockburn will discuss the meaning of these growing powers and analyze how things could have gone so terribly wrong. He speaks about the reasons for the unfolding of US and the West’s greatest foreign policy debacle and the impact that it has on the war-torn and volatile Middle East.

About Patrick Cockburn:
Patrick Cockburn is currently Middle East correspondent for the Independent and worked previously for the Financial Times. He has written three books on Iraq’s recent history as well as a memoir, The Broken Boy, and, with his son, a book on schizophre- nia, Henry’s Demons, which was shortlisted for a Costa Award. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006, and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009. He was named Foreign Commentator of the Year by the Comment Awards in 2013.