Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict

“This informative book could not be more timely…this volume addresses…the complex challenges seen today in Ukraine, Haiti, Venezuela, Gaza, and in places that will feature in tomorrow’s headlines.”
— Brian M. Jenkins, Senior Adviser to the President of the RAND Corporation

“Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict is essential reading for academics, policy makers, and security professionals alike.”
— Sean Costigan, PhD, Professor, Transnational Security Studies, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

“Required reading for all those interested in understanding the dominant military environment of the twenty-first century!”
— Louis A. DiMarco, PhD, Professor, Department of Military History, USA Command and Staff College

“A most timely and valuable repository of knowledge about urban warfare.”
— Vanda Felbab-Brown, PhD, Director, Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors; Co-Director, Africa Security Initiative;
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy; The Brookings Institution“This is a must read for professionals and all those interested in the modern face of war.”
— Professor Michael A. Hennessy, PhD, Head, Defence Studies, Canadian Forces [Higher Command] College

Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict, John P. Sullivan, Nathan P. Jones, and Daniel Weisz Argomedo, Editors.

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.
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Dr. John P. Sullivan retired as a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. He is an Instructor in the Safe Communities Institute, University of Southern California. He has a PhD from the Open University of Catalonia, an MA from the New School for Social Research, and a BA from the College of William and Mary. He received a lifetime achievement award from the National Fusion Center Association in November 2018 for his contributions to the national network of fusion centers. He is an instructor in the 40th Infantry Division Urban Warfare Planners Course and a Member of the Urban Violence Research Network (UVRN) and the Network of Experts at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).

Dr. Nathan P. Jones is an Associate Professor of Security Studies in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. He is the author of Mexico's Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction (2016) with Georgetown University Press. His areas of interest include organized crime violence in Mexico, social network analysis, border security, and the political economy of homeland security. Dr. Jones is also a Senior Fellow with the Small Wars Journal-El Centro, a Rice University Baker Institute Drug Policy and US-Mexico Center non-resident scholar, and the book review editor for the Journal of Strategic Security.

Dr. Daniel Weisz Argomedo earned his PhD in Political Science at the University of California Irvine with a focus on International Relations and Comparative Studies. His dissertation focused on the war on drugs and its impact on women's security in Mexico. He holds an M.A. in Political Science from San Diego State University where he wrote a dissertation on 'Hacktivism and social movements; and earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alberta where he wrote a thesis on the Mexican war on drugs. He wrote "Climate Change, Drug Traffickers and La Sierra Tarahumara" for the special issue on climate change and global security at the Journal of Strategic Security. He is fluent in Spanish and his research interests include cyberwarfare, the environment, the war on drugs, women's security and contemporary Latin American politics and history.