As the Obama administration broadens the U.S. military campaign against IS in Iraq and Syria by boosting U.S. special operations forces to advise local U.S. allies, DLI will likely have a key role to play in that mission.

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.”