Avoiding old mistakes in the new game of Islamic politics

By directly entering a confrontation with the Islamic State group, the U.S. leadership and foreign policy community correctly sense that what is at stake is not merely a military confrontation but also one that has ideological and even religious dimensions. They are, however, particularly ill-equipped to understand, much less participate in, the non-military aspects of the struggle. And the consequences may not only be misunderstanding but, more troubling, a return to the pattern of opportunistic alignments with autocrats that served U.S. policy well in the short term at tremendous long-term...