From 2014 to 2018, the war on the Islamic State deeply affected the Middle East, and attracted the world’s attention in the process. Throughout, Noria tirelessly documented its local dynamics in both Iraq and Syria. Rather than ushering in the demise of the Iraqi and Syrian states, our researchers disassembled how the war brought about the reinvention of these political orders in ways obvious and subtle. Moving beyond the superficial analyses that fill so much of the discourse around the topic, this series also revealed how the war was leveraged by state and sub-state actors in order to muzzle popular voices and perpetuate authoritarian practices