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SUMMARY:The Illusion of Control: Subversion in Vietnam and Afghanistan - S
 peaker to be confirmed
DTSTART:20111101T173000Z
DTEND:20111101T190000Z
UID:TALK34080@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Derek L. Elliott
DESCRIPTION:The Taliban have followed a strategy of subversion: In phases\
 , they propagandize\, recruit\, eliminate\, and consolidate. It is a modif
 ied Maoist guerilla strategy akin to Viet Minh and Viet Cong strategies. C
 ontrary to assertions by a counterinsurgency analyst\, David Kilcullen\, t
 he Taliban build and consolidate “parallel hierarchies” –the hallmark o
 f a Maoist “displacement strategy.” The Taliban have a developed a funct
 ioning polycentric governance system\; Kabul has been rendered irrelevant 
 in areas it claims to control (with foreign assistance). This paper addres
 ses military claims of territorial control from Vietnam and Afghanistan. I
 t analyzes patterns of subversion in Vietnam and Afghanistan\; and explica
 tes forms and functions of the Taliban’s parallel hierarchies. It conclud
 es that territorial “control” by U.S. forces in many areas of Afghanista
 n is illusory.
LOCATION:Seminar Room N7\, Pembroke College
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