Islamic State’s caliphate: law and history collide

Anne McMillan at IBA Global Insight,

"The so-called ‘Islamic State’ is a nom de guerre that confers no legal status on the self-declared Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, nor the territory his followers control – at least for now. But the question remains: can an armed group, having taken territory by force, bring into existence a state by simple declaration?"

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