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# Covert Contact 26: What You Are Getting Wrong About ISIS
- URL: https://johnwlittle.com/podcast-what-you-are-getting-wrong-about-isis/
- Published: 2015-11-23T06:47:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T18:31:04.000Z
- Description: Northeastern University professor and terrorism theorist Max Abrahms excels at poking holes in the conventional wisdom and he joins me again in episode 26 to do exactly that.
- Author: John Little
- Tags: Covert Contact, Podcast, Interviews, ISIS, Terrorism, Max Abrahms

Northeastern University professor and terrorism theorist Max Abrahms excels at poking holes in the conventional wisdom and he joins me again in episode 26 to do exactly that. I initially asked Max to discuss his recent piece in Harvard Business Review [Why People Keep Saying, “That’s What the Terrorists Want”](https://hbr.org/2015/11/why-people-keep-saying-thats-what-the-terrorists-want?ref=johnwlittle.com) but we expanded the discussion to explore commonly accepted ideas about ISIS – their supposed strategic and tactical brilliance, the viability of their so-called caliphate, and the notion that legitimate governments somehow don’t have the tools to address the problem that ISIS represents.

You can follow Max on Twitter [@MaxAbrahms](http://twitter.com/maxabrahms?ref=johnwlittle.com "Follow @MaxAbrahms on Twitter") and read his work at [https://neu.academia.edu/MaxAbrahms](https://neu.academia.edu/MaxAbrahms?ref=johnwlittle.com "Max Abrahms"). I also recommend reading “[The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited](https://www.academia.edu/1595455/%5FThe%5FPolitical%5FEffectiveness%5Fof%5FTerrorism%5FRevisited%5FComparative%5FPolitical%5FStudies%5FMarch%5F2012%5F?ref=johnwlittle.com "The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited - Max Abrahms")” for a more comprehensive breakdown of Max’s research and arguments on this subject.