The natural progression for &#x27;lawless&#x27; areas is for stronger country&#x27;s to attack and take land.  They don&#x27;t necessarily take over the whole country just the valuable pieces.  Then repeat after that has been assimilated.<p>Western intervention has stalled this process by imposing arbitrary borders on huge landmasses.  ISIS only works because larger state actors have been held in check.  But, a true hands off policy would likely lead to some regional wars which would quickly crush ISIS or see it evolve into a more traditional nation state.<p>PS: Of course the other way this breaks down is when a large and mostly stable nation contains lawless regions.  But, that does not really describe the region involved.