AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images Even with its physical "caliphate" destroyed in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has an operational presence in at least 20 countries. ISIS is better understood as a group of organizations in which the leaders provide resources to the affiliates with the most potential. Even with its physical "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria in tatters, the Islamic State is still managing to wage a global insurgency, maintaining an operational presence in at least 20 separate countries. The organization's global diffusion recently led a group of leading terrorism experts to describe ISIS as an "adhocracy," better understood as a group of "structurally fluid organizations in which 'interacting project teams' work towards a shared purpose and/or identity."