Al Qaeda and the Islamic State thrive in lawless and ungoverned spaces where there is no rule of law to keep them in check. Al Qaeda’s home base in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is the epitome of such a place, but the tide there has been turning against them over the last decade, as Pakistan slowly improves its reach into these historically ungoverned lands. Terrorist organizations cannot thrive where there is a functioning government, rule of law, courts, effective policing, etc. Yes, they can exist and function in first world countries, but they really don’t thrive.
On one of my early forays to Pakistan in 2003, we were encouraging the Pakistan military to go into the then notorious Shakai Valley, a remote place in the FATA that had become ground zero for al Qaeda senior leadership and other miscreants. For us in the intelligence community, the Shakai Valley was the root of all evil. After some coaxing, in May 2004, the Pakistan military went into the Shakai Valley for the first time to confront al Qaeda in an attack led from the air, quickly followed by boots on the ground.
“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62
Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.
Subscriber+
