AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare has recently published a National Security Watch titled “Terrorists, Insurgents and the Lessons of History,” by Richard Lim. This paper addresses the terrorist challenges currently on the rise and what can be done to combat them. In the past 40 years, hundreds of case studies on terrorist organizations have been conducted. The present discourse, however, continues to overlook the significant wealth of data readily available from those studies. “Terrorists, Insurgents and the Lessons of History” (National Security Watch 14-2, December 2014) calls on the nation’s military leaders to examine the lessons readily available in military history to handle contemporary difficulties effectively. In 2002, the United States declared that its primary national security objective was to disrupt and destroy the global reach of terrorist organizations. Now, more than ten years later, and after an estimated $1 trillion in wartime spending, terrorist groups are as active and deadly as ever; the violent rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is forcing leaders to reassess their strategies. A thorough examination of past efforts undertaken against terrorist organizations, while it cannot necessarily provide clear-cut answers for today’s problems, can outline basic tenants that must be heeded should the United States wish to defeat ISIS and similar organizations. To access “Terrorists, Insurgents and the Lessons of History” go to: http://www.ausa.org/publications/ilw/DigitalPublications/Documents/nsw14-2/index.html.You will need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to view the paper.