Network Science and Ungoverned Spaces
By Jeffrey Julum
One of Network Science Center’s newest projects is analyzing “ungoverned spaces” through the use of network analysis. There have been several different ways to define ungoverned spaces. One of the more comprehensive ones comes from a 2008 Depart-ment of Defense report. It defines an “ungoverned area” as: “A place where the state or the central government is unable or unwilling to extend control, effectively govern, or influence the local population, and where a provincial, local, tribal, or autonomous govern-ment does not fully or effec-tively govern, due to inade-quate governance capacity, insufficient political will, gaps in legitimacy, the presence of conflict, or restrictive norms of behavior… the term ‘ungoverned areas’ encompasses under-governed, misgoverned, contested, and exploit-able areas as well as ungoverned areas.”
Traditionally, we have tended to ignore un-governed spaces because they were not nearly as important as governments, NGOs, corpora-tions and other large entities on the global play-ing field. However, globalization and rapidly-advancing technologies make ungoverned spaces a rapidly growing threat. Terrorist and criminal groups that were once confined to regional areas with limited technology can now move globally with high technology available on the internet. Read More
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