Universal patterns underlying ongoing wars and terrorism
  We report a remarkable universality in the patterns of violence arising in three high-profile ongoing wars, and in global terrorism. Our results suggest that these quite different conflict arenas currently feature a common type of enemy, i.e. the various insurgent forces are beginning to operate in a similar way regardless of their underlying ideologies, motivations and the terrain in which they operate. We provide a microscopic theory to explain our main observations. This theory treats the insurgent force as a generic, self-organizing system which is dynamically evolving through the continual coalescence and fragmentation of its constituent groups. 
Neil F. Johnson, Mike Spagat, Jorge A. Restrepo, Oscar Becerra, Juan   Camilo Bohorquez, Nicolas Suarez, Elvira Maria Restre...