Before and after
urban warfare:
Conflict prevention
and transitions in
cities
Anto
ˆ
nio Sampaio
Anto
ˆ
nio Sampaio is Research Associate for Security and
Development at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
He looks at the intersection of urban governance and armed
violence, with a particular interest in the responses to armed
conflict in cities of the developing world. He also examines
criminal violence in Latin America, with special attention to the
Andean region, Mexico and Brazil. He holds an MA degree
from the War Studies Department at King’s College London,
and has previously worked as a journalist in Brazil.
Abstract
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. Conflict
prevention and peace transitions in cities (including mainstream international
International Review of the Red Cross (2016), 98 (1), 71–95.
War in cities
doi:10.1017/S1816383117000145
© icrc 2017 71
