The March 2015 issue of The Atlantic is now available online—with key pieces summarized and provided below:
Cover Story: “What ISIS Really Wants”
As Congress debates the president’s request to authorize military force against the Islamic State, contributing editor Graeme Wood has one of the clearest and deeply reported looks at the ideology of isis. To understand—and combat—this group, he says, we have to take seriously its intensely apocalyptic belief that it is a harbinger of the end of the world. After speaking with isis recruiters and supporters in London and Australia, and pouring over the group's readily available propaganda, Wood argues that we’ve made significant strategic errors by applying the logic of al-Qaeda to an organization that has decisively eclipsed it, and undertaking a “well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature.” He writes: “The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic … The religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.”
Features and Essay:
“Among the Hillary Haters”: After a motley group of conspiracy theorists peppered the Clinton White House with accusations of drug smuggling, stealing White House furniture, and even murder, the new guard of “Hillary haters” has a singular goal: to ensure that another Clinton never calls the Oval Office her own. From the now struggling American Spectator to the highly organized America Rising, forces are racing against the clock to carve a caricature of Hillary Clinton ahead of her likely presidential bid. National correspondent Hanna Rosin asks: Can a new, professionalized generation of scandalmongers uncover more dirt on the Clintons—without triggering a backlash?