This volume, Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict started as a special issue on Urban Security at the Journal of Strategic Security, Vol. 16, No., 3 (2023). It brings together new contributions from top scholars and practitioners to augment the content of the special issue and provide a comprehensive look at modern and historic urban security operations.
It is difficult to imagine a timelier contribution to the academic and practitioner literature on urban security. Global news has been rife with urban security issues, with the top headlines covering the Gaza war in response to the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th and Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which in its initial phase tried and failed to take the urban center Kyiv. The world's leading experts in urban warfare, urban security, and urban operations generously share their experiences and insights with readers in this unique anthology. Urban Operations explores key events shaping our understanding of urban security and provide valuable strategic lessons to better prepare for the growing threat of conflict in urban areas. This volume seeks to compile cases of urban warfare throughout different regions and decades to expose the ever-increasing trends of urban conflict and expose the complexities of urban combat in an increasingly urbanized world. It also provides lessons learned and makes theoretical contributions in areas such as urban warfare, urban conflict and non-state actors, emergency response to urban terror, artificial intelligence (AI) and data processing, and urban security. Visit the book's website for more details on the editors and contributors, along with an active blog linking insights from the book to today's headlines: www.urbanoperationsbook.com. Published by KeyPoint Press, Boulder, Colorado.