Cities, Terrorism and Urban Wars in the 21st Century

The majority of wars are fought in impoverished countries with often devastating and
transformative impacts on their urban spaces. Nevertheless, the relationship between
acts of terror and development is under-explored and little focus is placed on the
impact on cities of the global South. In the wake of 9/11 the critical gaze has been
trained firmly on terrorism in the global North, including its impact on cities: New
York, Madrid, London. Defining terrorism in terms of acts of terror the paper
recognises that urban centres are most susceptible to this form of political violence
because of the likelihood of greater impact and visibility afforded by cities.
Eschewing a ‘developing’/’developed’ dichotomy this paper nevertheless
demonstrates that while terrorism has levelled risk across cities of the North and
South, vulnerabilities in developing country cities are far greater. It is here that the
link between terrorism and development can be most tightly drawn. It is further
suggested that the incidence of urban terror is greatest in cities of less developed
countries and that urban terrorism is helping define a shift from ‘peasant wars of the
20th century’ to the ‘urban wars of the 21st century’, a shift not divorced from
encompassing global forces.