Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
David, is it ungoverned territory if Al-Qaeda or affiliated group governs that space? This was addressed in the "Management of Strategy," which is one of the Islamist strategy books. Kilcullen developed a theory to address this for terrorists, criminals, and insurgents, called "the theory of competitive control." I tried to spur a discussion on this topic earlier to no avail, but in my opinion the spread of AQ is all about competitive control.
Bill,

No, in many of the territories AQ are supposedly active they rarely govern. AQIM is a good example. It has gone through a cycle of militancy, retreat, crime (kidnapping & smuggling) and militancy in the Sahel where there are few people and even fewer who accept or need what they offer. Yemen I think is similar, with corruption replacing crime.

There is a big difference in deciding what the strategy should be in places where there are people in large numbers, Indonesia comes to mind.

I am not sure AQ's narrative has much appeal beyond inhospitable places with small populations (Afghanistan) where there is a competent state which can contain them (India), sorry also those that are ruthless (Algeria & Egypt).

I failed to find 'competitive control' instead this old thread Indirect and Direct components to strategy for the Long War (from 2008-2009) appeared and maybe useful:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=5070