SUMMARY

BY RAMI G. KHOURI,    THE DAILY STAR,  LEBANON

The intense debate taking place across the world in recent months about the precise nature of and motivating forces behind ISIS is impressive and useful, but still incomplete.

What remains unclear is the lack of evidence that any serious efforts will be made now and in the years ahead to tackle what I believe is the single most important underlying reason for the ISIS phenomenon: the modern legacy of mediocre and authoritarian governance systems in Arab countries.

This is a sideshow, however, and not a core element in the battle to defeat ISIS.

The damage that has been done by ISIS to Arab countries started decades ago and was the work of homegrown Arab extremists.

If ISIS and other such movements are to be defeated, and not reappear in new forms that are shaped by the same underlying drivers of discontent, we need to see tangible signs of change in the way Arab societies are governed. Those signs, I fear, are still missing from the array of forces being lined up to fight ISIS

– See more at: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2015/Mar-04/289510-much-more-is-needed-to-overwhelm-isis.ashx#sthash.KTfX9Aaa.dpuf