Despite its inordinate length, the very long-awaited Chilcot Inquiry into Britain’s role in the invasion of Iraq, due to be published on 6 July 2016, probably won’t deal with the rise of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). If it were to, however, it would conclude that the spread of ISIS was in part provoked by the chaos, instability and civil wars that ensued in Iraq and beyond after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. This was clearly Britain and America’s fault, the consequence of political arrogance and grossly inadequate planning for the postwar period, whatever Tony Blair might say to the contrary after the report’s release. 

But even if we created the ‘fertile ground’ in which ISIS could ‘implant, expand, and consolidate itself’, the origins of the movement are to be found in the failures of modern Arab states to govern their citizens properly, according to Fawaz Gerges, professor in contemporary Middle East studies at the