Defeating ISIS

A New York Times bestseller!

This reference shows how to understand the history and tactics of the global terror group ISIS—and how to use that knowledge to defeat it.

ISIS—the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—has taken on the mantle of being the single most dangerous terrorist threat to global security since al-Qaeda. In Defeating ISIS, internationally renowned intelligence veteran and counter-terrorism expert Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America and the forthcoming Hacking ISIS, gives an insider’s view to explain the origins of this occult group, its violent propaganda, and how it spreads its ideology throughout the Middle East and to disaffected youth deep in the heart of the Western world.

The group and its followers have struck repeatedly over the past few years: in Paris, Brussels, and Nice; at a center for developmental disabilities in San Bernadino, California; in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Defeating ISIS gives a step-by-step analysis of the street-level tactics the terrorists have employed in assaults against fortified targets, in urban combat, and during terrorist operations both at home and abroad. As much as ISIS is a threat to Western targets and regional stability in the Middle East, Nance describes not only its true danger as a heretical death cult that seeks to wrest control of Islam through young ideologues and redefine Islam as a fight to the death against all comers, but also how to defeat it.

Updated throughout and featuring a new afterword, Defeating ISIS is a highly detailed look into the organization by one of the world’s foremost authorities in counter-terrorism

Malcolm Nance is a globally recognized counterterrorism expert and Intelligence Community member who has been deployed to intelligence operations in the Balkans, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of The Plot to Hack America, Hacking ISIS, and the Terrorist Recognition Handbook and appears regularly on MSNBC. Nance lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Malcolm Nance was named a Genius for the Third Annual MSNBC and 92Y "7 Days of Genius" Festival in March, 2016

Richard Engel is the award-winning chief foreign correspondent for NBC News and has been in the Middle East war zone for over twenty years. He is the author of And Then All Hell Broke Loose, War Journal, and A Fist in the Hornet’s Nest.

“I really think the [2016 Presidential] candidates ought to read this.... You should buy this book.”
—RACHEL MADDOW, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC

“A comprehensive, authoritative, and detailed compendium on the Islamic State (ISIS).”
—Perspectives on Terrorism

“In his detailed and informed study Nance argues that, in effect, America's War on Terror created a new breed of vicious terrorists who wear the mask of Islam like actors in a Kabuki theatre while carrying out horrifically un-Islamic acts.”
—RICHARD ENGEL, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News, from his foreword

“Malcolm Nance lays out a plan to take the war to ISIS while still denying the jihadists the mass battle they crave. Expect him to join the "American crusaders" featured in Dabiq soon!”
—DOUGLAS OLLIVANT, Senior National Security Studies Fellow at the New America Foundation


Praise for Malcolm Nance and his work:

“I keep Malcolm's book at my bedside table.”
—RACHEL MADDOW, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC

“A new and updated edition of Malcolm Nance’s detailed and insightful book, The Terrorists of Iraq, Second Edition, is most welcome news…. He knows the players, their vicious infighting, and their brutal methods like few others. To read his analysis is to understand the make-up and the real threat posed by these latest claimants to forming a Caliphate in these divided lands.”
—Peter Earnst, founding Executive Director of the International Spy Museum and a 35-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

“If you took every member of United States Congress and House of Representatives and wrote their collected wisdom on Iraq, it's unlikely they could equal the astuteness of even a single chapter of author Malcolm W. Nance in The Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency 2003-2014. It's Nance’s overwhelming real-world experiential knowledge of the subject, language, culture, tribal affiliations, and more which make this the overwhelming definitive book on the subject.”
—Book review by Ben Rothke, Information Security Professional, writing on Slashdot.org

"The second edition of The Terrorists of Iraq comes at a critical time when the world is trying to understand ISIS, its origins, and its place among multiple actors in Iraq. This book is instantly the definitive source on ISIS and Nance demonstrations the often forgotten fact that ISIS has been there all along, evolving with the shifting dynamics in the theater of battle, within the insurgency and in the region. The Terrorists of Iraq remains an essential and well-researched guide for anyone interested in understanding or addressing this horrific period in global history."
—Adam Hinds, former political advisor, United Nations Iraq

“Mandatory reading for personal survival and national security?from the battlefields to the halls of Congress.”
—Jay R. Stanka, Managing Editor HUMANI Magazine and U.S. Army Special Forces veteran

“[The Terrorists of Iraq] is easy to read, vivid, and offers enormous precious experience and empirical data which make it attractive to policy-makers, scholars, and students.”
—Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression

“[The Terrorist Recognition Handbook provides a comprehensive and detailed treatment of terrorism and counter-terrorism. Divided into six parts, the chapters cover topics such as understanding terrorism in all its manifestations, and the components of counter-terrorism. The appendices include a bibliography, a listing of terrorist groups, and a checklist of explosive components and their ingredients. The author is a consultant on counterterrorism and a retired military intelligence officer.
—Book review by Dr. Joshua Sinai appearing in Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2014