Urban Warfare

Abstract

Urban warfare refers to a range of military operations conducted in cities. Cities have a political, economic, social, and cultural significance that are determinant in warfare tactics. When compared to other landscapes, the sociopolitical and infrastructural specificities of cities make them the most challenging of war operations. Urban violence has shaped the dynamics of cities around the world in different forms. As with all conflicts, urban operations have different origins, related to political, religious, drug‐war, racist, nationalistic, or terrorist and counterterrorist motives. Urban warfare impacts the political, economic, social, and urban aspects of cities, generating shifting dynamics. But beyond infrastructural and urban transformations, contemporary urban operations account for new local nonstate and international actors, such as increasing privatized parties and humanitarian organizations. Certain trends such as globalization, increasing connectivity, but also transnational terrorism and new conflicting parties make war and violence especially relevant to think about in contemporary urban landscapes.