In today’s modern times, many different governments and organizations are in constant conflict. While these are mostly foreign policy issues, the reality is countries in complete disagreement with one another and this leads to unease in how to resolve the situation. On top of this is the idea of terrorism, which has been a constantly evolving threat for the past few decades. Currently, the main organization that is a threat is ISIS, which has all parts of the world nervous. They are a radical group that is constantly growing in members and in their attacks. One of the most frightening aspects of ISIS is that they no longer are attacking a singular region. They have evolved into attacking places all over the world. “ISIS”, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is no longer a group of individuals in that region that are wreaking havoc throughout the Middle East. They now are recruiting members from places all over the world. Places such as Canada, where ISIS presence was unprecedented, are now producing new members. Their range of base has now moved out of just Iraq and Syria into places such as: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Russia, Jordan, and others. Their reach now is significant and has foreign governments worried. They inflict mass destruction without the slightest sense of care. For instance, in 2016, a man affiliated with ISIS drove a truck through crowds in Nice, France. These people were celebrating France’s National Day and he ended up killing 84 and injuring many more. They are brutal individuals who do not care about how many people they kill, and their mission is to inflict pain and suffering around the world.
The chosen map details the growing regions of attacks and demonstrates the magnitude of their destruction. This map was created by GeoCurrents, a news outlet for all of the noteworthy events in the world pertaining to people and places, offering various discussions of current events. The mission of this article, along with many of their others investigating the growth of ISIS, it to focus on specific regions and then update those maps frequently in accordance with what movements ISIS is making. It shows many of their attempts and the locations they are primarily focusing on in Europe. The most frequently attacked countries in Europe by ISIS are France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. This map also illustrates the number of foreign fighters in each region. These terrorists have killed thousands of people and injured many more. This map uses many intelligent symbols in order to depict all that is occurring within these countries. For example, a country with an orange box around its name means that it is a target of ISIS through their threats and recruitment. Over time, these icons have grown vastly throughout the regions of this map. Another example of an intelligent symbol is the explosion icon. Red means it was a direct ISIS coordinated attack and yellow means that it was an ISIS-inspired attack. Additionally, explosion symbols with a black dot in the center indicate that the attack was thwarted. The cartographers of this map have a very keen sense of detail in order to illuminate all the actions ISIS is making.
This map is important because it shows to what degree ISIS’s attacks and targets have grown. They are no longer simply a regional terrorist organization, they are now an international group of radicals whose sole mission is attacking countries worldwide. They are constantly evolving and becoming more of a global threat. Their mass destruction is becoming more commonly talked about and governments are working tirelessly on plans to combat this terrorist organization.
Terrorism, to most people, seems like something that will never affect them. More often than not, we tend to think these actions are something that simply occurs in the Middle East and could not ever happen in our home country. Most people don’t think their region of the world will really be affected by terrorism and that is why in most cases they overlook it. In reality, it is imperative that more maps like this continue to be released, not only for the general public to be made aware of, but for governments worldwide. These are difficult issues in many parts of the world and they cannot continue to be overlooked. While this map is quite helpful in understanding the attacks that ISIS has attempted and completed, I find that it fails to illustrate the magnitude of destruction they have caused. It is distorted in the sense that it primarily only focuses on Europe with only smaller portions of other countries represented. Yes, the majority of ISIS’s attacks have been in Europe and the Middle East, however, this map leaves out countries such as the United States, most of Russia, and virtually all of the Middle East. While it does an impressive job of showing the degree to which these countries have been impacted, it is also distorted because it is leaving out larger portions of the world. The producer of this map does demonstrate some bias being that the majority of the map is centralized on Europe without displaying many of the other target locations of ISIS’s attacks. Despite this, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence’s mission is to further educate the public and policymakers to further aid in combating the acts of terror that groups such as ISIS commit. Through their vast research of attacks and the accumulation of data, it leads to maps that can help us further investigate their agenda and targeted areas. It is organizations like these that can make a significant difference in the way we fight terror and better prepare ourselves for it. Maps like these need to become more readily available and continue the talking between governments. Only through the collaboration of governments will this radical organization be stopped and a greater sense of safety be restored throughout the world. The maps created with the data from the ISCR assist in calculating the number of attacks attempted, and though they might appear to have no direct correlation, they demonstrate just how serious and rapidly increasing the threat of ISIS is. Through maps like this, we gain a broader knowledge that can only benefit the global situation and allow us to continue making advancements with the goal of ending terrorism.
References:
Lister, Tim. “ISIS: 143 Attacks in 29 Countries Have Killed 2,043.” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 Feb. 2017, www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/index.html.
Bremmer, Ian. “ISIS Foreign Fighters: Which Countries Do They Come From?” Time, Time, 14 Apr. 2017, time.com/4739488/isis-iraq-syria-tunisia-saudi-arabia-russia/.
“Home / ICSR.” ICSR, icsr.info/.
I think this map is especially interesting considering how pertinent the threat of ISIS is in modern times. The map’s ability to show how the threat of ISIS changes overtime is powerful– yet as you said potentially distorted in its representation of the world. I agree with you that it is strange that the map leaves out America and most of Russia. Perhaps the cartographer is trying to further his/her interest in showing the imminent and tangible danger of ISIS by leaving out large countries that have not experienced such threats. I think this map is an interesting snapshot of the current climate of the global threat of ISIS– and will serve as a useful tool as that threat continues to change overtime.
Stuart,
I found this map to be very interesting. I believe that currently ISIS is the biggest to America and the rest of the world. Like you said, ISIS has managed to expand from a once small region to all around the world. I think ISIS’ expansion can relate back to the ideas about the shrinking world, and now our cartography and way of life are completely different. Terrorism and ISIS soldiers are now located all over the world due to technology and being able to recruit more fighters via the internet. This has changed the map of terrorism. Looking at this map, I was surprised to see there were ISIS attacks in countries such as Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Croatia. This goes back to your point that a flaw in this map is it doesn’t depict the magnitude of this attacks: which have a major affect on the culture and attitudes of the people. So, maybe the main stream media did not publicize these events as much because unfortunately, we are now used to attacks on a larger scale—where 5 or more people are killed.
Anyways, thanks for this interesting map! I’m curious to see what 2017’s map will look like!
Kim
Being so relevant to the current international state of affairs, this map is a good one to critique. Stu, I agree with you on the maps importance, and that it helps to see patterns in ISIS attacks as well as the destruction they cause. Also, it is very important for more maps like this to be released. Instead of hiding from the terror that exists in the form of terroritst groups such as Isis, society needs to be as informed as possible in order for everyone to fully understand what’s going on overseas.
This is a great map. As you mentioned, in our world today the threat of terrorist attacks seems to be inevitable. This map does a great job of detailing the frightening expansion of ISIS across Europe as well as plots where different events related to ISIS have occurred such as an attack or an arrest. However, as you touched upon, the map is unable to show the severity of attacks that have occurred. An attack that killed 2 people and an attack the killed 200 people would be plotted the same way. Granted, one attack is horrible enough but the severity of the attacks plays a major issue in determining just how threatening ISIS is as a whole.
Great job and very nicely critiqued!
Stuart, I really enjoyed your choice in map. It was such an interesting topic and such a cool way to bring current events into our class. This map sheds light on the very scary truth that ISIS continues to expand to locations all around the world, even in such progressed places of civilization. With all of the recent acts of terrorism in major countries, your question becomes very relevant, why would the cartographers choose to leave out the americas along with Russia. I’m curious what the cartographers true intentions were in this decision, because as we know everything has been chosen on maps for a reason. This map shines a light on the ever growing danger in the world and how close this danger really is to us, sparking the talk of the shrinking world. I am interested to see how this map of expansion will evolve in the coming years.
Thanks for the intriguing info.
I greatly enjoyed your map Stuart. At first I was puzzled by the title referring to this map as showing the “Expansion of ISIS.” My immediate thought was of a map showing strict borders of the lands currently occupied by the Islamic State. But the more I thought about it the more the name of the map made more sense to me. I realized that the map doesn’t show the Islamic State expanding in the traditional sense, but in the modern terroristic fashion of threatening the civilians of nations they don’t even border. With this point I enjoyed your thoughts on how the terrorist’s seek power through making innocent civilians around the world feel unsafe. This map is certainly an amazing addition to this blog and I am happy to see your success in sparking a conversation.
Stuart,
As someone who is not really into politics simply because I just can’t follow everything that’s happening and because it’s confusing to me, I feel like this map is extremely helpful to someone like me. Knowing about ISIS, and just how bad they are, it’s nice to be able to be shown a tangible map to give an idea of just how much they are expanding. This map brings light to a problem people often forget about. I especially liked your idea that terrorists only gain power through fear and harming innocent people, not that they actually have power that can match that of world superpowers. I feel very lucky to have been able to stumble upon this post and be more informed about the current state of ISIS.