ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the case of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS): its emergence during the Syrian conflict, its defeat, and the subsequent state of affairs. With the international community supporting various parties to the conflict, the conflict intensified and became increasingly protracted, creating the governance vacuum and allowing ISIS to expand the areas it effectively controlled. This chapter examines two approaches employed against the rise of armed non-state actors driven by violent extremism in a conflict that showed no signs of a peaceful resolution. The first comprises military interventions conducted by the international community, which were successful in defeating ISIS, but they changed the balance of power between the parties to the conflict and accelerated the fragmentation of governance in the country. The other is a non-military approach encompassing humanitarian assistance and support for building resilience in Syrian-led efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism. This chapter argues that during a persistent conflict that seemed to have no foreseeable resolution, it is seldom easy to implement full-scale peacebuilding support. Therefore, actions to foster resilience at the community level through Syrian-led activities can serve as a nexus between humanitarian, peace, and development practices.
Keywords: Syrian conflict, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Violent Extremism (VE), Resilience, Peacebuilding
