In this great interview from New Books in National Security, Omar Ashour, author of How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt, talks to host Jeffrey Bristol about his work.
They discuss the origin of Ashour’s study and how ISIS franchises spread. The interview also explores the potential threats of ISIS as an international terrorist organisation and why it grew as quickly as it did. They also look ahead to what the future might hold for ISIS.
Find out more about the interview over on New Books Network, or listen below:
Ben Connable, "Ground Combat: Puncturing the Myths of Modern War" (Georgetown UP, 2025) – New Books in National Security
Ground Combat: Puncturing the Myths of Modern War (Georgetown UP, 2025) reveals the gritty details of land warfare at the tactical level and challenges the overly subjective and often inaccurate American approach to characterizing war. Ben Connable's motivation for writing the book is to replace overly subjective analyses with an evidence-based approach to examining war. From analyzing a set of over 400 global ground combat cases, Connable shows there has been a modest and evolutionary shift in the characteristics of ground combat from World War II through the early 2020s. This evidence of gradual change repudiates the popular but often hyperbolic arguments about military-technical revolutions and that there is a singular character of war in the modern era. Connable identifies past and current weaknesses in military design and strategy, examines common characteristics in modern ground combat from the data, and reframes the debate over the historical and prospective impact of emerging technologies on war. Ground Combat sets an evidentiary baseline and a new, detail-oriented standard for conflict research and policymaking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security
- Ben Connable, "Ground Combat: Puncturing the Myths of Modern War" (Georgetown UP, 2025)
- Daniel Lomas, "The Secret History of UK Security Vetting from 1909 to the Present" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
- Thomas Christian Bächle and Jascha Bareis eds., "The Realities of Autonomous Weapons (Bristol UP, 2025)
- Reid B. C. Pauly, "The Art of Coercion: Credible Threats and the Assurance Dilemma" (Cornell UP, 2025)
- Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman, "Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century" (Princeton UP, 2022)
About the Author
Omar Ashour is an Associate Professor of Security and Military Studies and the Founding Chair of the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the author of How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) as well as the editor of Bullets to Ballots: Collective De-Radicalisation of Armed Movements (Edinburgh University Press, 2021).
