On the changing character of war: Strategies of Iraq's struggle against ISIS

After the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime by the US occupation in 2003, power passed from the Sunni to the Shiite Arabs, who constitute the majority of Iraq's population. In the post-occupation period, attempts to establish a balance of power in domestic politics have failed. The escalation of ethnic and sectarian tensions that have accompanied the civil wars has exacerbated political polarization to an extreme level, and the tenuous structure of the country's internal balance has been shaken again by the Arab Spring. The oppression by Shiite Arabs of other ethnic and sectarian groups and the vacuum of authority in the country have led to the emergence of the ISIS terrorist organization in Iraq. The fact that ISIS has adopted a hybrid warfare strategy has also resulted in the rapid escalation of its dominance in the country. This situation has lead the state to establish alliances at domestic, regional and international levels in order to combat ISIS. Iraq has also adopted a hybrid warfare strategy to counter ISIS's equivalent. In order to comprehensively evaluate Iraq's alliance strategies in dealing with ISIS, the current study adopts an omnibalancing theory that presents a different perspective to the classical balance of power theory. It uses the hybrid warfare concept to examine the strategies that have contributed to the rapid advance of ISIS in Iraq and the strategies adopted by the country in combating ISIS.