ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes what capacities and abilities the international community has to promote security against the expansion of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces. It focuses on important new understandings of state and human security and the relationship between the two. The book discusses the potential and the reality for international organizations to complement the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on security challenges. It addresses the context and nature of ISIL's development to become a major threat to regional and international peace and order. The book presents an analysis of when, why, and how ISIL evolved from a disparate collection of jihadists into an extremist militia that became greater in scope and ambition than its individual parts. It provides an analysis of the capacities and abilities of various organizations to take action against ISIL.
