Defining, shaping, and evolving definition(s) of spaces

[AmericanPride]

I think there is something to be said about the uniform as 'infrastructure', as you stated, for internal consumption and organization.

[AmericanPride]

So - I finished the book. Although I would give it mediocre ratings at best, as I felt it could have been far more sophisticated in its analysis, I do think the analytical framework could be appropriated for political-security studies.

In particular, I think it could be use to guide a form of 'structural targeting' in COIN environment in which the state aims to manipulate/construct the underlying economic and social base of a given operational environment. This departs from the reactionary form of counter-terrorism targeting that aims to neutralize threats that have already manifested. The U.S. effort at 'clear-hold-build' or any of its derivatives was rather haphazard at best without any credible understanding of the political-economic structure informing the operational environment.

With a kind of 'structural targeting' the state aims to not only dominate and occupy space, but to actively define and shape it in a way conducive to its objectives. The Coalition did this unwittingly tactically - from checkpoints and counter-IED grates to building clinics and schools and establishing parliamentarian governments. None of these really served to alter the nature of power/conflict in the OE, but really to redirect the undercurrents of conflict in other directions; i.e. fueling sectarianism rather than mitigating it. That's because IMO the U.S. did not have a strategy to connect tactical operations with the political object.