Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks

by Angel M. Rabasa

Ungoverned territories-failed or failing states or ungoverned areas within otherwise viable states-generate a myriad of security problems and often become terrorist sanctuaries. Using a two-tiered framework applied to eight cases from around the globe, the authors illustrate the conditions that give rise to ungoverned territories, contributing to our understanding of what makes some ungoverned territories more conducive to a terrorist or insurgent presence than others. On the basis of this ground-breaking work, the authors identify three types of ungoverned territories and their effects on U.S. security interests, while presenting strategies designed to improve our ability to mitigate these effects.

396 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2007

About the author

Dr. Angel M. Rabasa was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He wrote extensively about extremism, terrorism, and insurgency. He was the lead author of The Lessons of Mumbai (2009); Radical Islam in East Africa (2009); The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey (2008); Ungoverned Territories: Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risks (2007); Building Moderate Muslim Networks (2007); Beyond al-Qaeda, Part 1: The Global Jihadist Movement and Part 2: The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe (2006); and The Muslim World After 9/11 (2004). He completed the research on patterns of Islamist radicalization and terrorism in Europe, and worked on a project on deradicalization of Islamist extremists.

Other works include the International Institute for Strategic Studies Adelphi Paper No. 358, Political Islam in Southeast Asia: Moderates, Radicals, and Terrorists (2003); The Military and Democracy in Indonesia: Challenges, Politics, and Power (2002), with John Haseman; and Indonesia's Transformation and the Stability of Southeast Asia (2001), with Peter Chalk. Before joining RAND, Rabasa served in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. He was a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the International Studies Association, and the American Foreign Service Association.

Rabasa earned a B.A. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and was a Knox Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford University.

Dr. Rabasa passed away on September 25, 2016.