Regional Responses To The Rise Of ISIS

Many states in the Middle East claim to be waging determined war against ISIS. But no one, save the Kurds, seems to be doing so. Threatening as it is, ISIS is not the top priority of any member of the coalition arrayed against it. Regional responses to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have varied depending on regime perceptions of threat, not only from ISIS itself, but also from other potential rivals, challengers, or enemies. Despite the jihadi group's extensive use of violence in Syria and Iraq and its claims of responsibility for bombings and attacks in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen -- as well as France in mid-November -- it was not necessarily the top security priority for any of these states.