States should increase laws against citizens that seek to leave with the intention of joining foreign jihadist groups. This should target jihadism specifically, because broad laws against participating in foreign militaries trip up innocent people rather than targeting extremists. That around five thousand EU citizens joined ISIS almost without interdiction in 2014-2015, sometimes going back and forth numerous times, is testimony to a security system focus that needs updating.

Focus should be put on groups that appear to have cross-border, regional or global intentions in their language. In this sense, the decision of Jabhat al-Nusra, which was Al Qaeda in Syria, to change its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, is interesting because it went from a global or regional focus to a local one. However the Syrian civil war and its multiplicity of groups, many of which increasingly lean on Islamist extremism as an ideology, will produce blowback. If Assad is successful at retaking Aleppo, refugees in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey may find themselves exposed to recruitment for extremist operations. Some have military training, which was a key component in ISIS and Al Qaeda success.

ISIS and Al Qaeda emerged quickly to be a global threat, even though both organizations had existed for years before their threat became clear. This is a lesson that what looks tranquil and quiet today, whether it is the Balkans or Southeast Asia, can become radicalized quickly into an insurgency with regional threats. Learning the lessons of the past, rather than assuming ISIS is defeated or pretending that various extremist groups are less genuine than they claim to be, will help combat the next ISIS before it sets down roots and threatens the world.

Seth J. Frantzman is a Jerusalem-based journalist who holds a PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Image: Islamic State militants. Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons/@Dean11122