The Rise of ISIS and Non-State Actors

Active learning helps students move beyond memorizing names and dates to analyze the complex drivers behind ISIS’s rise. By engaging with primary sources, simulations, and debates, students connect geopolitical events to human consequences like displacement and economic collapse.

• Year 12
• Modern History
• 4 activities
• 40 min–60 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the ideological and geopolitical factors contributing to the rise of ISIS, citing specific historical events and movements.
2. Explain how the operational methods of non-state actors, such as ISIS, challenge traditional state sovereignty and international law.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of international military and diplomatic strategies employed to counter extremist groups in the Middle East.
4. Compare the recruitment tactics and propaganda methods of different non-state extremist organizations operating in the region.
5. Synthesize information from primary and secondary sources to construct an argument about the long-term consequences of ISIS's territorial control.

Jigsaw

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Jigsaw: Rise Factors

Divide class into expert groups on ideology, geopolitics, funding, or propaganda. Each group prepares a 3-minute presentation with evidence from primary sources. Regroup into mixed teams to share and synthesize findings into a class concept map.

Prepare & details

Analyze the ideological and geopolitical factors that contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Facilitation Tip: Before the Jigsaw Research, assign each group a distinct factor (e.g., oil funding, sectarian tensions) and provide a clear one-page source set to prevent overlap.

Setup: Flexible seating for regrouping

Materials: Expert group reading packets, Note-taking template, Summary graphic organizer

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 45 min·Pairs

Debate Carousel: Counter-Strategies

Pairs prepare arguments for or against strategies like airstrikes, ground troops, or sanctions. Rotate to debate three stations, noting strengths and weaknesses on shared charts. Conclude with whole-class vote and reflection.

Prepare & details

Explain how non-state actors challenge traditional notions of warfare and sovereignty.

Facilitation Tip: Set a 6-minute timer for each carousel station in Debate Carousel so students focus on concise counterarguments rather than long speeches.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Gallery Walk

⏱ 40 min·Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Source Analysis

Post 8-10 document excerpts around room, covering ISIS propaganda, UN reports, and eyewitness accounts. Small groups visit stations, annotate impacts on stability, then report key insights to class.

Prepare & details

Evaluate the effectiveness of international efforts to counter extremist groups.

Facilitation Tip: For the Gallery Walk, number each source and require students to annotate with sticky notes, forcing close reading of both text and visuals.

Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter

Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Simulation Game

⏱ 60 min·Small Groups

Simulation Game: Coalition Negotiation

Assign roles as nations in Global Coalition. In small groups, negotiate responses to ISIS advances using scenario cards. Debrief on sovereignty challenges and real outcomes.

Prepare & details

Analyze the ideological and geopolitical factors that contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Facilitation Tip: In Simulation: Coalition Negotiation, provide role cards with conflicting interests to ensure productive conflict and negotiation rather than friendly agreement.

Setup: Flexible space for group stations

Materials: Role cards with goals/resources, Game currency or tokens, Round tracker

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Teaching This Topic

Teach this topic by balancing geopolitical context with human stories. Avoid framing ISIS purely as a religious phenomenon; instead, use timeline activities to show how groups emerge from state collapse and regional rivalries. Research suggests students grasp complexity better when they compare ISIS to other non-state actors like Hezbollah or the Taliban, highlighting continuities in warfare rather than seeing ISIS as a unique aberration.

What to Expect

Students should leave able to trace how power vacuums, ideology, and geopolitics intertwined to shape ISIS’s expansion and assess the limits of counter-strategies. Evidence of this understanding appears in their research notes, debate arguments, and source annotations.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Jigsaw Research: Rise Factors, students might claim ISIS rose solely from religious fanaticism.

What to Teach Instead

During Jigsaw Research, assign each group a different cause (oil funding, sectarianism, foreign fighters) and require them to map how these factors interacted, forcing students to recognize multiple drivers in their final presentations.

Common Misconception

During Timeline activities with peers, students may argue that non-state actors like ISIS represent a new threat to sovereignty.

What to Teach Instead

During Timeline activities, have students plot Al-Qaeda and other groups alongside ISIS to show historical precedents, using their timelines to argue that warfare forms evolve rather than appear abruptly.

Common Misconception

During Debate simulations, students might assert that international efforts completely defeated ISIS.

What to Teach Instead

During Debate Carousel, require students to cite evidence about territorial loss versus ongoing affiliate activity, ensuring their arguments address both successes and persistent challenges in counter-terrorism.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

After Gallery Walk: Source Analysis, pose the question: ‘How does the use of social media by groups like ISIS fundamentally alter the nature of warfare and state control?’ Have students cite specific propaganda examples from the gallery to support their points.

Quick Check

After Jigsaw Research: Rise Factors, provide students with a short case study (e.g., the Battle of Mosul). Ask them to identify two ideological factors and two geopolitical factors influencing the outcome, using their group’s research to justify their answers.

Exit Ticket

After Simulation: Coalition Negotiation, have students write one sentence explaining how ISIS challenged traditional notions of sovereignty and one sentence evaluating the success of a counter-terrorism strategy they negotiated during the simulation.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Ask students to design a social media campaign to counter ISIS recruitment, explaining their strategy with evidence from propaganda analyses.
• Scaffolding: Provide sentence starters for students struggling to articulate causal links, such as “One geopolitical factor was _______, which led to _______ because _______.”
• Deeper: Invite a historian or journalist to discuss how ISIS’s rise reshaped urban landscapes in cities like Raqqa, using before-and-after photos and survivor testimonies.

Key Vocabulary

Salafi-jihadism	A radical, fundamentalist interpretation of Sunni Islam that advocates violent struggle (jihad) to establish a global Islamic caliphate.
Caliphate	A political-state led by a caliph, considered the successor to the Prophet Muhammad, claiming religious and political authority over all Muslims.
Sovereignty	The supreme authority of a state within its territory, including the exclusive right to govern and control its own affairs without external interference.
Asymmetric Warfare	Conflict between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, often involving unconventional tactics by the weaker party.
Proxy War	A conflict instigated by opposing powers who do not fight each other directly, but instead use third parties to do their fighting for them.