Surviving Under the Shadow of the Islamic State

This essay outlines how Islamic State repressed local communities after conquering much of Iraq’s territory in 2014, and how civilians, in turn, responded to insurgent governance. While there are as many ways to survive violence as there are people affected by it, most survival strategies fall into four general categories: flight, cooperation, neutrality, and resistance. Iraqis’ experience under the harsh rule of the self-declared caliphate takes center stage, but the analysis includes generalizable lessons about how ordinary civilians survive terrorism, insurgency, and civil war. The essay concludes with an analysis of the core challenges confronting postwar governance in Iraq.