Political Science Professor and Chair Thomas Schaller writes about his views on religion, war and the political practices of ISIS in his latest column in The Baltimore Sun.

Schaller notes the dangerous nature of what ISIS purports to want: a return to the era of Islamic caliphates. “Political leaders hungry for power and control often peddle to potential followers the intoxicating promise of reviving a high-varnished, glorified past that never really existed,” he writes. “Such delusions often turn lethal, especially when revanchist aspirations cannot be delivered to adherents and are met with resistance from opponents.”