Over the long term, it will be crucial to turn off the IS recruiting faucet. Doing so will require counterterrorism officials to better understand that that the “snuff videos” for which IS has become so well-known are not the principal enlistment tools. Rather than “come kill,” the strongest message is “come build the caliphate.”

This dearth of policy stands in stark contrast to the role played by an influential State Department policy maker turned Google executive, Jared Cohen, in formulating and facilitating a form of "soft" regime change policy in Egypt during the "January 25 Revolution" known as "digital democracy." 

Pope Francis, Secretary of State John Kerry, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among those said to be likely to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Few prognosticators could have heard of the civil-society groups that make up the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, let alone have imagined that they would be awarded the prize.