--- title: World: What We Need to Fight ISIS description: Why we need a 'war czar' for the battle against ISIS, the right way to avoid forest fires, making school less boring and more. canonical: https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-18T16:01:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:36.884Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What We Need to Fight ISIS og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What We Need to Fight ISIS twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What We Need to Fight ISIS by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 18, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 18, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**The White House needs a ‘war czar’ to make sense of the fight against ISIS.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/09/obama-needs-isis-war-czar-its-too-late/121250/) By Richard Fontaine and Vance Serchuk in Defense One **2\.** [**There’s a simple solution for taming large forest fires. So why don’t we do it?**](http://www.vox.com/2015/9/17/9347361/wildfire-management-prescribed-burn) By Brad Plumer in Vox **3\.** [**Make grade school better by making it less boring.**](http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2015/09/17-chess-addressing-boredom-in-schools-sablich) By Liz Sablich at the Brookings Institution **4\.** [**We’re destroying the next generation of doctors.**](http://time.com/4012627/doctors-stress-suicide/) By Rhoda Feldman and Ralph S. Greco in Time **5\.** [**Tap water needs an overhaul.**](http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/bottled-water-environmental-risk-by-brahma-chellaney-2015-09) By Brahma Chellaney in Project Syndicate  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/"},"headline":"What We Need to Fight ISIS","datePublished":"2015-09-18T16:01:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:36.884Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/","keywords":["Innovation","School","Water","ISIS","doctors"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4040076/war-czar-fight-isis/","name":"What We Need to Fight ISIS"}}]}] ```