Opportunity and Environments

Abstract

These final two chapters, Chapters 8 and 9, are concerned with the opportunity variable of the insurgency calculus and with applying an environmental approach that views insurgents’ opportunity as a product of their local environment. The physical, political, military and social aspects of a band’s local environment can each be viewed as a separate environment. Each of them also presents a particular type of opportunity, such as a political or military opportunity, which when added together constitute the overall opportunity variable of the insurgency calculus. This chapter will examine the physical, political and military environments, especially the very local military-political environments known as ‘operational zones’ and their relationship to insurgents’ support bases; the next chapter will focus on the social-political environment that may or may not provide the political support needed to expand and/or strengthen insurgents’ support bases.