For as long as Islamic State looks like a winner, one that might even establish a functioning, sustainable state with control over territory, it will have appeal. Young men will go to fight for it for both money and status. Women, even with their children, will go to support it, care for its sick and wounded, act as brides, help set up its imagined community. But this will end as soon as Islamic State ceases to look viable. By the end of 2016, it was in retreat and looking considerably less successful than it had a year earlier.
