On Political Fragmentation: Hegemony and Colonialism

"The debate between the two different military doctrines of territorial organization - linear fortification and a network of strongholds laid out throughout their depth - recalls comparisons suggested by Antonio Gramsci between the "war of position" and "war of [manoeuver]", with similar political patterns. For Gramsci, the shift from the former to the latter implies an erosion in political hegemony. He noted (allegorically perhaps) that since linear defense 'demands enormous sacrifices by an infinite mass of people ... an unprecedented concentration of hegemony is necessary, and hence a more "interventionist" government .. [that will] organize permanently the "impossibility" of internal disintegration - with control of every kind, political, administrative, etc.' The political 'war of [manoeuver]', by contrast, exists according to Gramsci as a multiplicity of non-centralized and loosely coordinated actions that aggressively compete with the power of the state."

Weizman, E. (2007). Hollow land: Israel's architecture of occupation. London: Verso. P. 77.