2015: The year Islamic State’s brand of terror went global

PARIS—From the blood spilled in the streets of Paris to the San Bernardino shootings, the world in 2015 showed its vulnerability to the brand of terror perpetrated by Islamic State jihadists.

Over the past 12 months, the group that took root in Iraq and in the chaos of the Syrian war has turned its focus from territorial gains to hitting distant enemies.

“The Islamic State (IS)... has gone global,” said Richard Barrett, former head of Britain’s global counterterrorism operations and now vice president of the New York-based think-tank Soufan Group.

Barrett said politicians found the issue of the IS group “really difficult” to deal with.

“The public is frightened, and that’s the point of terrorism—to make the public frightened. And it’s very difficult for the politicians to deal with a constituency which is frightened,” he said. “But... running around in circles and sending more bombers [to Syria and Iraq] is not solving the problem, it’s even making it a little bit worse.”

For the time being, the attacks by IS gunmen and bombers have failed to have the one effect the group is seeking—the stigmatization of Muslim communities who would then swing their support behind the group.

IS had stated that its attacks in France were meant to break up communities, which could then lead to the collapse of society “into civil war,” said political scientist Gilles Kepel. “This apocalyptic vision that the jihadists nurture is fueled by the belief that they will be able to recruit people of the same religion, because those people will become victims of ‘Islamophobia’ that has been made more acute by the jihadists’ killings.”