Territorial Control Research Articles

Governing the Shadows: Territorial Control and State Making in Civil War

Under what conditions do rebels succeed in establishing functional institutions in state-dominated areas? Canonical theories of rebel governance and state formation insist that territorial control is a necessary precondition for the development of governing institutions. Yet despite growing recognition that this claim is empirically incorrect and theoretically limiting, we lack knowledge about the conditions under which rebels succeed in governing civilians in areas where the state dominates. We argue that low state governance responsiveness towards rebel constituencies enables insurgents to overcome the challenges associated with establishing institutions in state-dominated areas. Low state responsiveness increases popular demand for insurgent institutions, decreases the costs associated with governing, and enables insurgents to collude with civilians to hide their institutions. Case studies from Ireland, South Africa, and Algeria illustrate our propositions. Our findings deepen knowledge on how rebels govern and expand their territorial reach, and shed light on alternative trajectories of state formation.

Decoding urban power: Architecture, symbolism and territorial control in Caracas

This study examines the conflictual dynamics surrounding the utilisation of state-architecture and symbolic imagery as instruments for power consolidation, profoundly shaping national identity and perceptions within the built environment. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic power and cultural capital, this research illuminates the complex interplay between architecture, territory and power. It offers insights into the endurance of societal values and the ongoing renegotiation and reconfiguration of urban space. The research also analyses how urban planning and territorial practices can ignite resistance and challenge existing power structures. The city of Caracas serves as a case study, where two key strategies employed by the current government are analysed: the “Great Housing Mission Venezuela” and the proliferation of Chávez symbolism across the urban realm. By exploring these territorialisation practices in Las Adjuntas, Macarao, the study further unveils the dynamics of power and socio-spatial hierarchies encoded in the urban landscape. These architectural and symbolic interventions are interpreted as attempts to shape perceived realities, consolidate hegemonic control, and regulate the city's socio-spatial order. The findings assert that these practices not only reflect power distribution, but also grant the potential for dominating, producing and controlling territories in nuanced ways. This multidisciplinary study provides a novel framework for decoding power structures embedded in the built environment.

By order of the king? Castles in Gallecia in the Early Middle Ages (ninth-tenth centuries)

ABSTRACT With the end of the Visigothic Kingdom in the early eighth century, the territory of Gallecia, located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, entered a period initially characterized by the absence of major supra-local powers. Although nineteenth-century ideas of demographic abandonment have been surpassed, the different powers controlling this territory struggled to impose their agency. Only during the ninth century was this territory gradually integrated into the kingdom articulated from its political hub in Asturias. In this process, a fortified landscape in which castles were a fundamental part of the sociopolitical organization of the territory emerged. These types of sites have been significantly underestimated by archaeologists, with an increased interest in their study developing only in recent years. In this text, we examine several fortified elements located in Gallecia and analyze the relationship of these archaeological sites to the power dynamics and territorial control of the kingdom (ninth-tenth centuries).

Media Representation of the Russia-Ukraine War: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Reuters and TASS

This study has examined the linguistic differences in news reports published by Reuters and TASS on four distinct incidents during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war. Employing discourse analysis as the methodological approach and discourse theory as the theoretical framework, the study has revealed significant linguistic and rhetorical disparities between the two media outlets, highlighting divergent ideological stances and power dynamics. The study has found that Reuters and TASS have employed distinct linguistic strategies that shape public ideologies and perceptions. TASS has portrayed the war from a Russian perspective, referring to it as a "special military operation" while excluding Ukrainian viewpoints. In contrast, Reuters has depicted the war as a full-scale invasion and emphasized allegations of war crimes while also excluding Russian viewpoints. Discrepancies have also emerged in reporting casualties and territorial control, with TASS and Reuters presenting conflicting figures and narratives. Neither outlet has cross-checked information, undermining their objectivity and contributing to biased reporting. The study underscores how the language used by TASS and Reuters serves to legitimize their respective positions and influence public perception, reflecting broader geopolitical power dynamics. Both media agencies have produced misleading narratives by relying solely on official statements from both nations without independent verification.

How Organized Crime Threatens Latin America

ABSTRACT: Organized crime has emerged as the most important security threat to democratic governance in Latin America. This essay explains why Latin American democracies have been able to curb other security threats (from the military, insurgents, and oligopolists) but are struggling to contain organized crime. Organized crime possesses power assets associated with traditional security threats (military capacity, territorial control, and access to markets). But it also operates innovatively: It infiltrates and coopts the state, which makes it difficult for presidents to rely on state institutions (such as the police, the army, the courts, and prisons) to act in a unified way to fight organized crime. To date, there are no successful cases of Latin American states truly defeating organized crime. But states have means of rendering organized crime less predatory and violent.

Counterinsurgency, forest governance, and the dynamics of change in the forests of South Asia: Transition in Bangladesh's forests

Since the end of the Cold War, attention has increasingly focused globally on the nexus of conflict, natural resources, and governance, particularly in forested regions. This paper presents a comprehensive historical and comparative analysis of forest and biodiversity loss in Bangladesh over the last 50 years, attending to the impacts of counterinsurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and governance changes in the plains. Drawing on Peter Vandergeest and Nancy Peluso's seminal concept of “political forests,” the study critically analyzes how counterinsurgency, state-led development, and green militarization in the CHT, alongside neoliberal development, commercialization, and land grabbing in the plains, have reshaped forest governance and territorial control in the country. The analysis reveals that counterinsurgencies in the CHT, driven by domestic priorities and strategic interests, expanded colonial-style territorial control over forests, thereby exacerbating biodiversity loss. In the plains, neoliberal governance has promoted forest degradation through commercial exploitation and state-sanctioned land grabbing, with economic growth being pursued at the cost of environmental sustainability. This paper presents a critique of both militarized and neoliberal approaches to conservation, demonstrating how these models prioritize political and economic agendas over ecological integrity and local community needs. In conclusion, the study advocates a paradigmatic shift toward inclusive, community-centered forest governance that empowers local populations and emphasizes environmental stewardship, challenging dominant state-centric and market-driven approaches to forest management.

Hydro-diplomacy on the Brahmaputra: examining the interplay of water, territorial claims, and infrastructure

ABSTRACT The Brahmaputra is frequently discussed as a location of future water conflict between China and India. This paper shows that the risks of conflict over water are in fact low, because China functionally contributes less to the Brahmaputra’s flow than is often perceived and the river’s water contributes little to India’s water security challenges. However, both countries use water infrastructure as a signal of territorial control. Although opportunities exist for the Brahmaputra to serve as a source of regional cooperation, it will more likely continue to be used by both India and China in competition for regional geopolitical influence.

Mercantile Elites and the Making of Global Capitalism

AbstractGlobal trade is a topic that is well suited for conceptualizing global social history as it allows the opportunity to challenge the notion that global markets were primarily congruent with imperial territories. Businessmen were regularly able to establish economic networks that transgressed state borders and challenged imperial aims for territorial control. This may be evidence for the fact that capitalism and imperialism were two different, although sometimes converging, spatial structures, each with a distinct logic of its own. Even in the colonial period, and despite the prevalence of imperial racism, co-operation between metropolitan capitalists and businessmen from peripheries was possible – and, in fact, the rule rather than the exception. This co-operation was facilitated by similar business practices and a similar mercantile culture, which is why the two constituencies have been described as joint members of a globally connected bourgeoisie in several studies. The ability of economic elites to establish transregional business structures is highly relevant for conceiving global social history as a distinct approach. It reveals that the activities of these actors were crucial for establishing global capitalism, and allows scholars to examine the embeddedness of mercantile elites in their socio-economic environment and in particular to study the relation between capital and labour.

Civilian behavior on social media during civil war

AbstractRecent research emphasizes social media's potential for citizens to express shared grievances. In active conflict, however, social media posts indicating political loyalties can pose severe risks to civilians. We develop a theory that explains how civilians modify their online behavior as part of efforts to improve their security during conflict. After major changes in territorial control, civilians should be more likely to post positive content, and more content that supports the winning side. We study social media behavior during and after the siege of Aleppo in November 2016. We match Aleppo‐based Twitter users with users from other parts of Syria and use large language models to analyze changes in online behavior after the regime's retaking of the city. Results show that users in Aleppo post more positive and pro‐Assad content, but only when self‐disclosing their location. The findings have important implications for our understanding of digital communication in civil conflict.

Corridors of countersovereignty: Insurgency, smuggling, and post-nation-state politics in Turkey's Kurdish highlands

In Turkey's Kurdish borderlands, smugglers occasionally entered insurgent corridors, the guerrilla-controlled mountainous passages, to bypass state control. This article takes insurgent corridors to frame sovereignty as monopolization of space-making and proposes space-making as a key analytic to examine the forms of sovereignty that facilitate or undermine specific extractive practices. As a spatial form, corridors are central to the claiming and exercising sovereignty and extraction without having complete territorial control across a bounded space or the whole population in that space, the territoriality identified with nation-states. By controlling corridor space and monopolizing the traffic in them, colonial empires, nation-states, corporations, and rebel movements exercised sovereignty and extracted value that is carried or generated by corridor traffic. The insurgent corridors further complicate corridor sovereignty as the Kurdish guerillas monopolized corridor-making without monopolizing and extracting the corridor traffic under a post-nation-state political vision that favors grassroots democratized organization of mobilities and livelihoods rather than centralized exclusive authority and biopolitical governance on them. The insurgent corridors constituted what I call countersovereignty, a practice contesting not only the existing state sovereignty but also political models of nation-state sovereignty and territoriality. While anthropologists understand refusal as disengagement from actors claiming sovereign superiority, the insurgent corridor countersovereignty entailed a distinct form of political refusal that rejects mimicking state sovereignty and associated forms of biopolitical governance.

Spatial repertoires of power in the production of mining territories in northern Cauca, Colombia: Between imposition and negotiation

Territorial conflicts driven by the expansion of various forms of mining have escalated in the Global South. This article builds on the concept of territorialization, which often highlights the control of sociogeographical spaces by powerful through legal and coercive strategies. While existing literature addresses these power dynamics and resistance by less powerful actors, there is a gap in exploring the microscalar interactions that shape these territorial struggles. This study, based on ethnographic interviews and participant observation in the Afro-Colombian territories of the Quinamayó river basin, contributes to critical scholarship by decoupling the logic of territorialization from a top-down domination approach, emphasizing instead the everyday interactions and power relations that underpin territorial control. We explore the production of new mining territorialities from a quotidian and relational perspective, focusing on spatial repertoires of power, or a range of power strategies and relations that update extractive geographies in time. We find that territorial appropriation is defined and transformed through everyday moments of imposition and negotiation between multiple actors with different degrees of power. This microscale perspective deepens the understanding of territorial production, showing how daily interactions transform people’s connection to the territory, and highlighting the context-specific, agency-driven nature of these processes.

Medical Intelligence And Public Health In The Complexities Of Contemporary Societies The Role Of FBI In The United States

The term Medical Intelligence (Medint) defines the activities of collection, evaluation, analysis and interpretation of medical, bio-scientific and environmental information, regarding a specific country or geographical area, carried out mainly by military or intelligence agencies and carried out abroad, and useful for military or humanitarian strategic planning. It is of interest to Medint to know the potential of local health facilities, both civil and military, in the diagnostic evaluation, in case of infectious pathologies and in the evaluation of environmental risks as well as the "state of the art" of the development of computerized diagnostic technology and of biotechnology. The SMI (Strategic Medical Intelligence) is instead institutionally delegated to the intelligence agencies that deal with territorial control (counter-terrorism). In the United States, the SMI bioterrorism experts depend on the FBI. According to the definition offered by the FBI, Strategic Medical Intelligence (SMI) deals with all the management activities of a medical or health crisis situation following a terrorist act.

The relational state and local struggles in the mapping of land in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

ABSTRACT The article investigates how state-initiated participatory mapping, with the aim of legalizing Indigenous land, has implications for peasants' and Indigenous people’s struggles for control over land and resources. Empirically, the paper refers to a study of participatory mapping in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, initiated by the local government. We suggest that this practice of mapping can be seen as a new form of state territorialization that, in complex ways, mobilizes a range of actors across space under the framework of a participatory approach. However, participatory mapping also creates a new foundation for mobilizing resistance to states’ efforts to gain territorial control.

Criminalidad dependiente de la trayectoria histórica: gobernanza criminal después de la desmovilización paramilitar en Cali y Medellín

Objective/context: After the paramilitary demobilization in Colombia, Cali and Medellín—major cities with a long history of political and criminal violence—saw a decline in violence despite the continuing operation of criminal groups. Yet, while Cali remained more violent than the national average, with criminal groups displaying less ability to regulate local affairs and security, Medellín became less violent than the national average and criminal groups engaged in more intensive governance. Methodology: I compare these cities using case studies constructed through fieldwork and interviews with security officials, NGO and social leaders, and former members of groups, drawing on my long-term, ongoing research engagement in both locations. Conclusions: The contrast between these cities exemplifies varied manifestations of post-conflict criminality. I argue that this variation in criminal governance is connected to the wartime balance of power, specifically, the level of territorial control and political connections armed groups had before the demobilization. Where control and political connections of paramilitary before demobilization were high, post-conflict crime groups were more likely to engage in governance behaviors. By contrast, disputed territories during wartime were likely to experience less criminal governance. Drawing on path dependence ideas, I introduce an overlooked mechanism through which wartime orders affect criminal behavior: learning processes inside and outside criminal groups. Originality: I show that to fully understand post-conflict criminality, it is crucial to consider armed actors peripherally involved in the war but essential for territorial control, whereas to understand criminal governance, the mid-ranks of armed groups and learning processes are crucial.

Fighting for Oxford and Cambridge: National Security and Imperial Ambition in the ‘Transition of Power’

ABSTRACT This article uses the rise of the doctrine of ‘national security’ in US statecraft and strategy to re-examine Brian McKercher’s work on the ‘transition of power’ from Britain to the United States. World War II marked the great watershed in American foreign relations, in particular the ability, and more specifically the willingness, of Americans to project power beyond the western hemisphere. Not coincidentally, the war also marked another crucial turning point in American war and diplomacy: the transition from concepts like ‘national self-defence’ and ‘the national interest’ to a strategic doctrine that blended the blunt necessity of defence with the capacious ambition of interests. This new doctrine of ‘national security’ conceived of self-defence in a new way, not just as the protection of territorial sovereignty but as the protection of values, morals, and political norms. This much more capacious idea of defence was designed to be the bastion of a new liberal order to safeguard Western civilisation. In this light, American internationalists conceived of US power as the rightful heir to the mandate of the British Empire, albeit in ways that privileged command of the global commons over direct control of foreign territory. This article investigates the construction of ‘national security’ and the nature of Anglo-American empire in a new light.

Banditry, institutional weakness and the Zamfara State amnesty programme

This article demonstrates how institutional weakness makes amnesty, as a conflict management strategy, ineffective as found in Zamfara State; and how prioritising human security can help combat insecurity. Using Weak Institutions of State as a framework of analysis, the article argued that factors such as loss of territorial control or the sole use of force, crisis of legitimacy, mass poverty, corruption and inability to provide basic services to the citizens as characteristic of states with institutional weakness, create very complex security problems that amnesty is incapable of addressing effectively. Rather than mitigate insecurity, weak institutions in a state further fuel it by creating opportunities for both state and non-state actors to exploit the offer of amnesty for personal enrichment. This article adopted the documentary method of data collection, using deduction and inferences as analytical methods. Based on its findings, the study recommends the need for a more sustainable approach to conflict management that can benefit a larger number of citizens.

Territorial control by non-state armed groups and gendered access to healthcare in conflict using a new complex adaptive systems framework

The growing prevalence and influence of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in armed conflict requires a deeper understanding of how their territorial control and contestation affect sub-national healthcare availability and outcomes, particularly with regards to gender dynamics. However, there are gaps in existing research in understanding how NSAG governance influences health care outcomes. Furthermore, a disconnect exists between the literature on international humanitarian interventions, NSAG governance and national health systems. Each perspective tends to prioritise a specific health service provider—whether NSAGs, State actors, or international humanitarian organisations—and often treats populations as homogenous. To address these gaps, we propose a complex adaptive system framework centred on the influence of territorial control for health services in intra-state conflict settings, with a gender lens. This systems framework accounts for the influence of all parties significant for health service delivery. It recognises that those governing the localised health system may differ from those physically delivering health services. Our framework enables empirical examination of health service delivery and outcomes. We apply the framework to three conflict-affected settings (Colombia, Iraq, Mali) using publicly available data and offer recommendations for policymakers and practitioners targeting health service provision in intra-state conflict contexts.

Supply and Demand: Drivers of Women Non-Combat Participation in Rebel Groups

Including women into their ranks offers non-state armed groups advantages in terms of mobilisation, intelligence gathering, and establishing ties with civilians. However, especially in conservative societies, this inclusion of could also cause backlash from group members and supporters. While several previous studies analyse why rebels choose to recruit female combatants, limited attention has been paid to women in non-combat roles. I address this gap by studying the drivers of women’s inclusion into rebel groups as non-fighting members, hence contributing to wider efforts to bring gender-sensitive approaches to research on security and violence. Specifically, I conduct a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 118 groups in the period 1989–2015. The results indicate that a conjunction of supply-side factors (female unemployment, gender inequality) and demand-side factors (leftist ideology, territorial control, military strength) drive female non-combat participation in rebel groups. The causal impact of women’s marginalisation is highly context-dependent: Leftist rebels’ calls for gender equality are appealing to (particularly poor and excluded) women. Yet, rebels with high demand for skilled labour prefer to recruit non-marginalised women that received at least some job training.

The Tyranny of Supply: Natural Resources and Rebel Territorial Control in Civil Conflicts

Abstract The logic of territorial control is central to the study of internal conflict. Existing studies consider the consequences of territorial control without answering a critical question: what motivates rebel territorial control in the first place? Territorial control requires careful explanation. While it confers important benefits it is also costly to achieve and exposes rebels to state attack. This paper argues that benefits exceed costs when territorial control provides rebels with a reliable source of organizational supply. High-value lootable natural resources—resources available in abundance that are easy to extract and transport for sale—represent key components of a rebel's supply chain. To test the theory's implications, we introduce new cross- and sub-national time-series data on territorial control in sub-Saharan Africa and couple it with a new dataset of local natural resource values. We use an instrumental variable approach to address core endogeneity concerns. Results both substantiate our theoretical approach and provide evidence running contrary to existing arguments. These findings demonstrate that valuable natural resources, logistical supply constraints, and, more broadly, rebel military strategy, are critically important and need to be incorporated into work on civil war, territorial control, and rebel governance.

Game-theoretic agent-based modelling of micro-level conflict: Evidence from the ISIS-Kurdish war.

This article delves into the dynamics of a dyadic political violence case study in Rojava, Northern Syria, focusing on the conflict between Kurdish rebels and ISIS from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019. We employ agent-based modelling and a formalisation of the conflict as an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game. The study provides a nuanced understanding of conflict dynamics in a highly volatile region, focusing on microdynamics of an intense dyadic strategic interaction between two near-equally- powered actors. The choice of using a model based on the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, though a classical approach, offers substantial insights due to its ability to model dyadic, equally-matched strategic interactions in conflict scenarios effectively. The investigation primarily reveals that shifts in territorial control are more critical than geographical or temporal factors in determining the conflict's course. Further, the study observes that the conflict is characterised by periods of predominantly one-sided violence. This pattern underscores that the distribution of attacks, and target choices are a more telling indicator of the conflict nature than specific behavioural patterns of the actors involved. Such a conclusion aligns with the strategic implications of the underlying model, which emphasises the outcome of interactions based on differing aggression levels. This research not only sheds light on the conflict in Rojava but also reaffirms the relevance of this type of game-theoretical approach in contemporary conflict analysis.