Why the Islamic State Is Weaker Than It Seems

In Syria, the Islamic State is in crisis. Over the past three years, the group has managed to expand from a regional nuisance to a force with global relevance, declaring a caliphate in June 2014 that stretched from Iraq's Diyala province to Syria's Aleppo province. By doing so, it linked the two nations into a single zone of conflict and drew the attention of numerous powers, including the United States, Turkey and Russia. Today, the group maintains a presence from western Iraq to the Syria-Lebanon border -- an impressive territorial spread. But the breadth of the Islamic State's holdings in Syria is deceptive. The group's actual reach is largely limited to small, dispersed enclaves. The unbroken expanses of territory under its control are mostly empty desert. And a look at the group's three core Syrian areas -- northern Aleppo province, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour -- shows how the Islamic State is...