IN the aftermath of last week’s atrocity in Paris, it is only natural for France to search for answers. While the country has begun a counterterrorism sweep within its borders, external action has also been taken.

This has come in the form of air strikes by French jets targeting Raqqa, the ‘capital’ of the militant Islamic State group in Syria.

This is not the first time Paris has participated in military action against IS; it is part of a US-led coalition that has been bombing the militant group in both Iraq and Syria. However, the most recent strikes are being seen as a symbolic move on part of the French government to hit back at IS, which has taken ‘credit’ for the Paris outrage, described by the French president as an ‘act of war’. The attacks in the French capital were reportedly planned in Raqqa.

Take a look: France bombs IS HQ in Raqqa, hunts attacker who got away

While IS is indeed a global threat — as the attacks in recent days, from Paris to Beirut, have shown — the international community needs to review its response to fighting the terrorist entity.

For example, beyond fulfilling the immediate thirst for retribution, what long-term effects will the French military action have on weakening and eliminating IS?

After all, the waters of Syria have already been quite muddied by foreign intervention; as mentioned, the Americans have been leading a coalition bombing IS since September 2014, while the Russians entered the Syrian theatre some months ago on the call of the Damascus regime to also target the self-declared caliphate.

Will the French effort add to the effectiveness of these actions? Instead of working at cross purposes, major regional and global powers need to combine forces and, more importantly, work with the Syrian and Iraqi governments to uproot IS.

For example, it has recently been reported that Iraqi intelligence had credible information about the Paris attacks. Considering that Baghdad and Damascus are on the front line in the battle against IS, they must be taken on board by external actors.

Moreover, Western nations need to look internally at what factors are triggering their citizens to partake in acts of terrorism. For example, many of the suspected perpetrators of the Paris carnage were young French Muslims of immigrant origins.

Rather than making one-dimensional statements about battling terrorism, governments will need to tackle this menace on multiple fronts, including investigating the reasons behind radicalisation, and their long-term solutions.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2015