An integrated strategy to degrade and defeat ISIS and advance stability in the Middle East
ISIS’s advances this summer have made Iraq and Syria part of the same battlefield, erasing the international border and turning the regional struggles for power into a substantial threat to international peace and security. The United States should advance its three core goals noted above by focusing on the following pillars:
Building and managing an international coalition to defeat ISIS and stabilize the region
Increasing support for Iraq’s political, economic, and security transitions, in particular with a revived U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement
Initiating a more concerted effort to end Syria’s civil war and support the creation of a transitional government