John Spencer is chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute, codirector of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast. He served for 25 years as an infantry soldier, including two combat tours in Iraq. He is the author of Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War and coauthor of Understanding Urban Warfare.
At the start of this war, the jihadist group had governing authority, territorial control, a functioning bureaucracy, and a trained army.