Toward defensive global city: Reflection of urban (in)security in the age of terror (original) (raw)
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In the 21 st century, there has been a growing debate about urban security. Much of this discussion has focused on the changing definition of security, one that has been transformed in terms of military security towards human security. Everywhere around the world, states are trying to shift and adapt strategies according to the changing definition. With the people migrating from rural to urban areas, cities a dwelling for humans have become a center for a nations growth and development since it is here that much of political and economic developments are maintained. Their sustainability and resilience has become a challenge for governments, especially those of the third world countries. The catalyst of urban terrorism has intensified this challenge with governments around the world being involved in overreactions for their existential threats, without addressing much of the root cause of the problem. Thus, it is in this context that the paper first identifies the nature of threat, its perception and its linkage to strategic culture shaping the national security policy of a country. As a case to the nature of national threat, concept of urban security and terrorism is detailed. Lastly, the paper emphasize on the concepts of urban resilience and prosperity, which can be taken as cases of precaution while formulating strategies for its protection. Highlighting examples of urban terrorism around the world the paper moves on to conclude that acts of urban terrorism are growing and much of the tactics followed by terrorist are being adopted from warfare conducted by urban insurgents. It is concluded that threat in this case is the result of states internal failed policies, which can be detrimental for national, regional and international security.
Cities have been researched mostly in terms of their economic, technological, and social value and significance. Despite some changes in this respect there is still a need to research cities as a fascinating phenomenon, also in respect of its capabilities to increase human security on a local and global scale. The article examines the role of cities for human security in the selected and representative fields such as sustainable development, human rights and environmental protection which are components of human security. The subject matter is indeed fascinating as fascinating are cities themselves. They are dynamic, energetic, innovative and constantly evolving. The general thesis of the article is that cities may and do greatly contribute to human security.
Urban Security Planning: Models for Building Threat-Free Environments with Spatial Design Tools
IDU SPAD’20 International Spatial Planning and Design Symposium, 2020
From the early ages to the present day, cities and living environments demanded the need for common and uninterrupted safety. The city not as a collective form of built environment, but also as a base for safety and technological defence systems varied from border security to protection of urban cores and crowded places like squares and public buildings. These modes of varying systems of peace keeping and threat-free zoning builds up with digital and physical defence systems ubiquitously encompassing our lives. Furthermore, basic expectations of livelihood for cities and countries encompass; population dynamics in the periods of migration and outmigration, urban dwelling through deliberate action and cooperation for daily basic activities, ideological / religious / cultural communities, tensions between middle age relic feudal modes and modern societies. Such motivations and/or conflicts create the expectation of people not be harmed by any kind of threat. In this context, this paper will give findings from three sets of inquiry for building the foundations of a “Urban Security Planning Model”. In the first part of this paper; risks posed by war, asymmetrical war and terrorism in a context of safety / security expectation and motivation and security in space and safety strategies for terrorism resistant cities and safety and risk management theories will be discussed. In the second part; discussions on the use of space and urban geography on different sides and terrorist group attacks in regional or civil war will be given. In the third part, urban and rural cases for PKK terrorist attacks in the last 35 years, ASALA Terrorist attacks between 1975-1985 and a prominent international case of Afghanistan-Kabul case which is underpinned as a case of urban life under the threat of war, occupation and terrorist groups will be evaluated. In the concluding chapter, uses of space and geography for the synthesis on reducing the risks of security service provisions, discussions of risk management in the contexts of security, war, terror and defence activities, and model representations of spatial design tools and prospects for urban planning and design discipline will be speculated. Keywords: urban security, war, asymmetrical war, terrorism, spatial design.
Resilient design for community safety and terror-resistant cities
Proceedings of the ICE - Municipal Engineer, 2008
Resilience against an array of traditional and unconventional terrorist threats is increasingly important to the way towns and\ cities are designed and managed and how built environment professionals attempt to enhance levels of community safety. This is particularly the case with regard to crowded public places and transport systems such as light rail or trams, which are seen as particularly vulnerable to terrorist attack. This paper argues that contemporary terrorist threats and tactics mean that counter-terrorism in urban areas should increasingly seek to hybridise hard and soft engineering solutions in order to design and manage the built environment in ways that can reduce the occurrence or impact of a terrorist attack. In particular, it is argued that for counter-terrorism to be successful, inter-professional solutions are required for a wide range of public, private and community stakeholders that are (or should be) involved with the planning, design, construction, operation and management of public places.
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Global urban theory has placed increased emphasis on the ways in which residents from different walks of life have created heterogeneous spaces, livelihoods and political sensibilities. Much of this analysis deals with the importance of discernible forms of belonging, organization, and identity as the tools through which relationships among residents and spaces are managed and secured. For residents of mixed income, mixed use areas of the urban cores of megacities in the so-called Global South, securing livelihoods have also depended upon sensibilities and practices that open up multiple venues of collaboration among distinct backgrounds, capacities, and interests. They have relied upon intricate local political and social practices that that foster more diffuse and uncertain intersections-where time, effort, money, and affiliation are "untied" from their usual social anchors. Taking the phenomena of sporadic explosions of violence in Tanah Tinggi and the everyday piecing together of "nationhood" in Kramat Sentiong-two neighboring districts in central Jakarta-the article explores ways in which it is possible for localities to sustain a plurality of livelihoods and initiatives.
International Relations - INT RELAT, 2006
This article argues that contemporary security as a concept, practice and commodity is undergoing a rescaling, deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation, with previously international security concerns penetrating all levels of governance. Security is becoming more civic, urban, domestic and personal: security is coming home. In the context of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), asymmetric confl ict, the 'war on terror' and the 'splintering' of cosmopolitan urban centres, policy is increasingly centred around militaryderived constructions of risk. This securitisation is bound up in neoliberal economic competition between cities and regions for 'global' status, with security emerging as a key part of the offer for potential inward investment. The result is increasing temporary and permanent fortifi cation and surveillance, often symbolic or theatrical, in which privileged transnational elites gain feelings of safety at the expense of the liberty and mobility of ordinary citizens.