While it is true that lagging emerging market growth has cooled demand for oil, you are incorrect stating that the supply glut is not the main culprit of the price drop. A two million barrel per day increase is not insignificant-OPEC routinely exerts huge influence on prices with cuts between 500k to 1.5 million bpd. In fact, the largest cut in history was 2.2M bpd and that was in 2008 no less.
"The rise of ISIS to preeminence is not due to its religious ideology but to the structural deficiencies of the Iraq state."
How do you explain the large volume of foreign fighters that have joined ISIS? I have no idea how reliable these figures are, but many sources claim as many as 3000 foreign fighters out of the 5000-7000 that constitute the whole group. While Sunni marginalization in Iraq and Syria no doubt played some role in the rise of ISIS, I am not convinced that scores of foreign Islamists would join if not for its extreme religious ideology. And without religion inspiring these fighters to swell the ranks of ISIS, would they have been able to assert themselves so strongly?
Professor Cole,
While it is true that lagging emerging market growth has cooled demand for oil, you are incorrect stating that the supply glut is not the main culprit of the price drop. A two million barrel per day increase is not insignificant-OPEC routinely exerts huge influence on prices with cuts between 500k to 1.5 million bpd. In fact, the largest cut in history was 2.2M bpd and that was in 2008 no less.
"The rise of ISIS to preeminence is not due to its religious ideology but to the structural deficiencies of the Iraq state."
How do you explain the large volume of foreign fighters that have joined ISIS? I have no idea how reliable these figures are, but many sources claim as many as 3000 foreign fighters out of the 5000-7000 that constitute the whole group. While Sunni marginalization in Iraq and Syria no doubt played some role in the rise of ISIS, I am not convinced that scores of foreign Islamists would join if not for its extreme religious ideology. And without religion inspiring these fighters to swell the ranks of ISIS, would they have been able to assert themselves so strongly?