Working Paper 85. Cities, Conflict and State Fragility (original) (raw)

Cities, conflict and state fragility

2011

Cities have long been connected with processes of bureaucratisation and state building, as they have been to conflict and war. In bringing these two associations together Charles Tilly (1992) provided a useful analytical linchpin by famously highlighting the interaction between cities and war making as a critical factor in state making. He showed how in early modern Europe urban merchants struck bargains with medieval power brokers when agreeing to help fund wars aimed at extending or consolidating sovereignty. The intersection of cities, states and violent conflict remains significant today, although it manifests in different and more complex ways, particularly under conditions of state fragility.

From ‘civil’ to ‘civic’ conflict? Violence and the city in ‘fragile states’

For a fleeting moment during the final decade of the twentieth century, the general trajectory of conflict across the world seemed clear. With the Cold War over, the number of interstate wars was in free-fall and the dominant form of violence was internal, within fragmenting states no longer propped up by their superpower sponsors. The age of 'total war' between states had thus been largely superseded by a wave of civil conflicts, often characterised as 'new wars', fought for the most part in rural hinterlands and widely considered as limited in scope and scale.

Before and after urban warfare: Conflict prevention and transitions in cities

The rising pressures of urbanization in fragile and conflict-affected countries have increased concerns about the vulnerability of cities to armed threats. Changes in the character of armed conflict during the twenty-first century and its effects on cities in the developing world have exposed gaps in the planning and practice of peace and security, which retain a " nation-State bias " that circumvents local perspectives and agencies. Whereas full-scale use of military power in cities remains as destructive today as it has ever been, international organizations such as the United Nations have called for changed approaches to State tactics in urban areas. Mechanisms designed to prevent conflict or to help countries transition back to peace are particularly key if massive human and economic damages are to be avoided in a world of increasingly dense cities. Another key concern is the vulnerability of developing-world cities to low-intensity, if protracted, forms of violence by non-State actors, particularly in post-conflict contexts.

Sarajevo Redux: Socio-Spatial Outcomes and the Perpetuation of Fragility in a Post- Conflict City

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Urban Management at Technische Universität Berlin, 2019

In an increasingly urbanized world, new constructs concerning urban fragility, the changed nature and increasing urbanization of armed conflict and emerging conceptual frameworks for urban post-conflict interventions present new discourses for urban planners and post-conflict first responders to consider. Cities with the highest level of fragility tend to be in states destabilized by ongoing intrastate conflict and yet even after negotiated peace settlements recovering cities appear particularly vulnerable to the accumulation of urban risks and tensions associated with higher levels of urban fragility. Working as part of an international post-conflict intervention recovery effort, how can urban planners contribute to achieving better long-term outcomes of peace and stability in the urban post-conflict setting? By conducting a macro and meso level case study analysis of Sarajevo's international post-conflict intervention through the lens of the social contract, liberal peace, and collective memory theoretical frameworks, this thesis seeks to identify strategic approaches and outcomes of Sarajevo's post-conflict intervention process and the related long-term impacts of these outcomes at the municipal and neighborhood scale. More than two decades after the end of armed conflict, the greater Sarajevo metropolitan area remains peaceful, yet partitioned; social, yet segregated; and, functional, yet fragile. Though limited by the contextualized nature of urban post-conflict settings, this analysis might be useful for other urban post-conflict situations. Drawing from the results of the case study analysis, as well as from other relevant literature sources and related professional field experiences, this thesis hypothesizes that the early integration of urban planners with initial humanitarian and stabilization first responders as part of international post-conflict intervention recovery efforts can result in better long-term outcomes of peace and stability. Keywords: Urban Post-Conflict Recovery, Urban Planning, Urban Peacebuilding, Collective Memory, Social Contract, Urban Post-Conflict Intervention, Fragile City