The 'Urbanization of Insurgency' a Priority for U.S. Military

"Western military theorists and researchers are increasingly preoccupied with how the rapid growth of cities in the global south undermine their technological advantages over non-state insurgents. In particular, a concerted effort is being made to redesign and reequip the United State military so that its raison d’ êtré becomes the violent take over and control of the mega cities of the global south. After three decades when the US military concentrated on global surveillance, power projection, and the avoidance of ground fighting in urban environments, US high-tech surveillance and targeting power is now being redesigned to actually target and control the very micro geographies of global south cities.

"With the bloody results of the urban insurgency in Iraq adding evidence to support their views every day, many leading military theorists in the US now argue that the urban terrain in poor, global south countries is a great leveller between high-tech US forces and their low-tech and usually informally organised and poorly equipped adversaries. The complex and congested terrain below, within, and above cities are thus widely viewed by US military commanders and theorists as a set of spaces which limit the effectiveness of the high-tech space-targeted bombs, surveillance systems, and automated, ‘network-centric’ and ‘precision’ weapons developed during the Cold War. A US Defense Intelligence Reference Document for example, argues that 'the urban environment negates the abilities of present US military communications equipment.' This results in dead spots which severely undermine the principles and technologies of ‘network-centric warfare’ – the style of high-tech targeting and killing that is the preferred mode of operation amongst the US military these days. Global south cities are thus seen to be refuges which shelter insurgent groups from the overwhelming technological superiority of US forces. The major military think tank RAND report ed recently that this is leading to what they call the ‘urbanization of insurgency’.'"

Thanks to Michael Dudley