December's airstrikes in Sokoto marked the first direct US military action inside Nigeria. The intervention architecture that produced them was designed to expand. Whether Washington can control what it has started depends on understanding why the Somalia analogy misleads.

The Sahel has become the world's deadliest region for terrorism, accounting for half of global terror deaths. But the real story is not violence—it is governance. Jihadist groups now tax, adjudicate, and administer territories that nominal states cannot reach. As this parallel order expands...