The terror group ISIS, which refers to itself as the "Islamic State," has outlined its plans to create a functioning caliphate in a 24-page document that details its planned foreign relations, propaganda operation and structuring of an oil and gas-based economy.

The manual, which was obtained by The Guardian, offers a blueprint of how to set up government departments responsible for education, natural resources, industry, foreign relations, public relations and military camps. It was written in response to the June 28, 2014 proclamation of a "caliphate" by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the newspaper noted.

The pamphlet, titled "Principles in the Administration of the Islamic State," confirms the terror group's intent to indoctrinate children through curriculum and to train some young boys for combat. Apart from its brutality, though, it is ISIS' attempt to build a state that differentiates it from competing jihadist groups such as al Qaeda, experts argue.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who helped destroy what The Guardian dubbed an ISIS predecessor in Iraq between 2006 and 2008, told the newspaper that the document underlined the threat of underestimating the terror group.

"If it is indeed genuine, it is fascinating and should be read by everyone -- particularly policymakers in the West," the American general said about the manual. "If the West sees ISIS as an almost stereotypical band of psychopathic killers, we risk dramatically underestimating them. ... [The blueprint is] not a big departure from the works of Mao, the practices of the Viet Minh in Indochina, or other movements for whom high-profile actions were really just the tip of a far more nuanced iceberg of organizing activity."

Charlie Winter, a senior researcher for Georgia State University, meanwhile, noted that his analysis of the document suggests that ISIS, which already controls large swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria, also has a high capacity for premeditation, the British newspaper noted.

"Far from being an army of irrational, bloodthirsty fanatics, [ISIS] is a deeply calculating political organisation with an extremely complex, well-planned infrastructure behind it," Winter concluded.