Nevertheless, ISIS remains a serious threat both at regional and international level. Militants have given proof of being able to consolidate their territorial control and, so far, what should raise concern is that they may occupy the rest of Syria so much so that they would directly skim the entire Turkish border. Should that happen, the international community would face a vast militarized and access-to-sea equipped non-State. In such a situation, there would be serious repercussion in trades and Europe may be victim of dangerous infiltration due to its territorial proximity.

What to do then? On the one hand, US-led coalition airstrikes turned out to be almost ineffective. On the other hand, “dead dogs don’t bite” principle may not find application here: a traditional military intervention may eradicate the problem in principles but it may not in practice. In fact, the risk of creating an even worse power-vacuum that would raise the instability level it’s quite high. Therefore, unless they will be forced to do otherwise, strategic airstrikes against Islamic State position would be considered as main countermeasures.

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