Mary Kaldor y Saskia Sassen. Cities at War: Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance. Nueva York: Columbia University Press, 2020

Abstract

Armed conflict has undergone great changes from the end of the Cold War to the present. Thus, various concepts appear that seek to overcome state-centric approaches, such as asymmetric wars, or in the case of Mary Kaldor, "New Wars". This review of "Cities at War: Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance", by the aforementioned author together with Saskia Sassen, aims to present its fundamental points, analyze its contribution to studies of contemporary conflict, position it at a methodological level, and provide criticism on the conflicts themselves in light of the empirical evidence that the book itself collects as case studies. Thus, the main tools or trends proposed by the authors will be explained to test the new paradigm that they understand fits into their theoretical model, and it will be discerned to what extent they are novel or not, or consistent with contemporary history. Finally, recommendations are provided for future works.