I'm either on to something, or Marc and I are both out in left field, but I coined - pun intended - the term "counterinsurgency physics" about 10 minutes ago.

The basic idea is that "inkspots" are attracted to and repelled from each other by various forces: religious/economic/cultural/historic etc. BPC can efficiently create stability by removing insurgents who are preventing the connections, but it requires enormous energy to force together inkspots that are naturally repelled. Such forced connections are temporary. Yugoslavia is a good example. It was held together by secret police but exploded along religious/cultural/ethnic lines when the "energy" was removed.