Understanding Urban Warfare

by Liam Collins, John Spencer

Overview

No environment is more challenging for militaries than a city. No form of combat is more inherently destructive than urban warfare. And yet too often, militaries are both unprepared for the challenges of cities and unable to avoid being pulled into brutal urban fights.

In Understanding Urban Warfare, readers will gain more than just an appreciation of the unique challenges of urban warfare—from the limiting effects of three-dimensional terrain on many weapon systems and the multiplicity of enemy firing points on a city street to the overarching need to minimize civilian casualties and protect critical infrastructure and cultural property. The book presents readers with new ways to understand the distinctive characteristics of a variety of cities—megacities, global cities, feral cities, and even smart cities—and how those characteristics impact military operations in urban terrain.

Readers will also be provided first-hand accounts of some of the most relevant urban battles in modern history—the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, the 2004 Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq—plus the 2020 Battle of Shusha in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and more—to illuminate trends and lessons to better understand urban warfare.

In an increasingly urban world, the future character of conflict will also be increasingly urban. This book sets out to understand that future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912440375
Publisher:	Howgate Publishing Limited
Publication date:	01/01/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
Sales rank:	431,457
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Liam Collins

Dr. Liam Collins is the executive director of the Madison Policy Forum, a senior fellow with New America, and a permanent member with the Council on Foreign Relations.  Colonel (retired) Collins served in the US Army for 27 years. As a career Special Forces officer, he conducted multiple operational and combat deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, South America, and the Horn of Africa.  In Iraq, Liam conducted operations in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, and many other cities. Liam retired from the military in 2019 as the founding director of the Modern War Institute and the director of the Department of Military Instruction at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace) from the United States Military Academy, and a Master’s in Public Affairs and a PhD from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat
veteran, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare
and other military related topics. Considered the world’s leading expert on
urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and
other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups
from the Pentagon and the United States Military Academy. Spencer is the
Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point,
co-director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare
Project podcast. He is also the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the
Madison Policy Forum and a Colonel in the California State Guard with
assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard
as the Director of Urban Warfare Training. Serving over twenty-five years in
the active Army as an infantry soldier, Spencer has held ranks from private
to sergeant first class and second lieutenant to major. His assignments as
an officer included combat deployments to Iraq as a platoon leader and
company commander; an instructor in the U.S. Army’s Ranger School; a
Joint Chief of Staff and Army staff intern; fellow with the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group; and co-founder, strategic planner,
and deputy director of the Modern War Institute at West Point.

 

Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the
Madison Policy Forum and a Colonel in the California State Guard with
assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard
as the Director of Urban Warfare Training.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

 

Introduction                                                                                                             

 

Part I - Understanding the Operational Environment      

                                                 

1. Understanding the City

 with Dr. David Kilcullen

 

1. Feral Cities

with Dr. Robert Norton

 

1. Global Cities

with Dr. Saskia Sassen

 

1. Smart Cities

 with Dr. Sokwoo Rhee

 

1. Megacities and the Military

 with Col. (ret.) Patrick Mahaney

 

1. Beneath the City

 with Dr. Daphne Richemond-Barak

 

Part II - Operational Case Studies

 

1. The Battle of Ortona

 with Major Jayson Geroux

 

1. The Battle of Mogadishu

with Col. (ret.) Lee Van Ardsdale, Col. (ret.) Larry Perino, and Command Sergeant Major (ret.) Kyle Lamb

 

1. The Second Battle of Fallujah

 with Lt. Gen. James Rainey

 

1. Rebuilding Fallujah

 with Col. (ret.) Leonard DeFrancisci

 

1. The Battle of Ramadi

 with Dr. Louis DiMarco

 

1. The Battle of Sadr City

with Lt. Col. (ret.) Rob MacMillan

 

1. The Battle of Mosul

 with Maj. Gen. Roger Noble

 

1. The Battle of Marawi

 with Dr. Charles Knight

 

1. The Battle of Shusha

 with John Spencer

 

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'Understanding Urban Warfare is an excellent primer on the challenges of urban warfare. Seasoned "urbanistas" (scholars of urban operations) and newcomers to the issue will benefit from the text.' - Parameters

'More training in actual urban areas, integrating the consequences of short-term decisions on long-term success and better incorporation of other-than-military considerations: these and more are essential if preparations are to reduce the high costs of urban fighting. This book is a step in the right direction.'

- Association of the United States Army

"John Spencer and Liam Collins are to Urban Warfare what Billy Mitchel was to airpower or Karl Doenitz was to submarines." - Max Brooks, New York Times best-selling author of World War Z and Devolution

"Understanding Urban Warfare's ambitious title reflects the authors' challenging objective to make combat's most complicated form understandable - and Liam Collins and John Spencer have succeeded brilliantly. Leveraging the experiences of recent operations, they provide insights and lessons essential for soldiers and policymakers alike. A riveting read." - General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Ret.) former Commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Afghanistan and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), New York Times best-selling author of My Share of the Task and Team of Teams

"A timely, important, and exceptional examination of the extraordinary challenges of urban warfare by two soldier-scholars with considerable experience and expertise in urban combat. Understanding Urban Warfare is the consummate study that demonstrates how critical it is that policy makers and military leaders understand the dynamics of urban ecosystems and how to deal with them." - General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, U.S. Central Command, and NATO and US Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA.

"Our next war will most likely be fought in cities. Here Col Collins and Col. Spencer have compiled more than a dozen case studies, each featuring a different expert participant. The reader can grasp the challenge: It seems urban warfare, like all other branches of combat, is so sui generis that no cookie-cutter model of doctrine applies. So one has to read widely and adapt, adapt, adapt." - Bing West, bestselling author of No True Glory: A Front-line Account of the Battle for Fallujah.

"Impressive in both breadth and detail, Understanding Urban Warfare manages to be extremely readable and a very useful introduction to this vitally important subject." - Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, Berlin - The Downfall 1945, and D-Day - The Battle for Normandy.

From the Publisher