Complex Terrain: Megacities and the Changing Character of Urban Combat

Description

This book explores military operations, including indirect support to other interagency actors and functions in dense urban terrain and megacities. Dense urban terrain describes urban areas with high population densities that, in the developing world, often outstrip the capacity of local governance systems to exert formal control. The term megacity describes a city with a population of 10 million or more. These environments define patterns of human settlement. In 1950, only 30 percent of the world’s population lived in cities compared to more than 55 percent in 2018. Much of this growth is concentrated in large, urban centers that connect a global flow of goods and ideas. By 2030, there will be more than 40 of these megacities List of Illustrations ix Foreword xi Introduction, Henrik Breitenbauch, PhD, and Benjamin Jensen, PhD CHAPTER ONE 11 Third World Megacities: An Illusion of Control, Lieutenant Commander Muhammad Maooz Akrama, Pakistan Marines CHAPTER TWO 52 Territorialization of the Megacity: Exploiting Social Borders, Major Alexandra V. Gerbracht, U.S. Marine Corps CHAPTER THREE 75 The 2008 Battle of Sadr City: Implications for Future Urban Combat, David E. Johnson and M. Wade Markel CHAPTER FOUR 93 ISIL’s Territorial Logic of Urban Control in Mosul and ar-Raqqah: City as a System Analytical Framework, Erin M. Simpson, PhD CHAPTER FIVE 111 Distributed Influence: Enabling Maneuver in a Megacity, Major Jonathon T. Frerichs, U.S. Marine Corps CHAPTER SIX 140 Coordinating Chaos: Integrating Capabilities in Future Urban Conflict, Major Robert D. Barbaree III, U.S. Marine Corps CHAPTER SEVEN 156 Joint Combined Arms Maneuver in the Megacity: Learning to Thrive in Chaos, Major Geoffrey B. Lynch, U.S. Army CHAPTER EIGHT 181 Cyberspace in the Megacity: Thickening the Fog of War?, Major Joseph I. Farina, U.S. Marine Corps CHAPTER NINE 212 Take It, Don’t Break It: A Megacity Concept of Operations, Colleen Borley, Foreign Service Officer, Department of State CHAPTER TEN 234 Symbiotic Warfare: Resource Competition and Conflict, Major Christina L. Manning, U.S. Air Force CHAPTER ELEVEN 263 Air Domain Dominance in a Megacity, Major Nathan J. Storm, U.S. Marine Corps CHAPTER TWELVE 291 Virtual Resistance Networks: Enabling and Protecting Electronic Information Flows in the Megacity, Colin R. Relihan CHAPTER THIRTEEN 311 The City Prism: A Triangle of Urban Military Operations, Henrik Breitenbauch, Mark Winther, and Mikkel Broen Jakobsen CONCLUSION 344 The Military Implications of Complex Terrain in Twenty-first Century Urban Areas, Benjamin Jensen, PhD Appendix: The World’s Largest Megacities 361 Glossary of Select Terms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms 367 Index 371