What Happened to ISIL?

In this special "UpFront" discussion, we look at the current status of ISIL, why the media have generally decreased its reporting on it, and whether the group still poses a risk.

Four years after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) seized large areas in Iraq and Syria, it appears the group has been defeated militarily, and has now lost 99 percent of the territory it once controlled.

According to a University of Maryland study, 2017 was the third consecutive year in which the number of "terrorist" attacks around the world went down.

Joining Mehdi Hasan in this episode are: John Mueller, a professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of "Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them"; Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University and author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror"; Renad Mansour, a fellow at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani and a Middle East research fellow at Chatham House; and Nicolas Henin, a former war correspondent, former ISIL captive, and author of "Jihad Academy: The Rise of Islamic State."