Is it possible, however, that America’s ostensibly rational, formal, and “clinical” death penalty is more painful for its victims than ISIS victims? I investigate this question by considering the suffering caused by the death penalty in the US, making some informed speculations about ISIS executions, discussing execution in two influential Islamic nations, and observing some ironies these topic raise about the rule of law and capital punishment. Because I have studied the death penalty in the US extensively, I am aware of how it causes suffering to the condemned, especially when botched. Part of Cottee’s research involves identifying, archiving, and analyzing terrorist propaganda videos-the horrifying and sometimes professionally produced films that ISIS and other groups create and disseminate depicting their members killing people. I became interested in this comparison while I was collaborating with the British scholar, Simon Cottee, who writes extensively about “jihadi” murder, both as an academic and as a journalist for The Atlantic (Cottee 2019). These research notes explore the idea of comparing executions in the United States (US) to executions undertaken by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Does isis need a state to survive