Urban warfare is increasingly being recognized as a feature of contemporary and future war. Indeed, successfully negotiating urban operations is an imperative as the “era of urban warfare is already here .” This now and future operational space is fraught with challenges as described in the previous essays in this series. These challenges include the complexity of operating in urban terrain ranging from tunnels , to vertical spaces , population density and diverse demographics, sprawl, architectural and political complexity, culminating in humanitarian challenges. Add to this: environmental and ecological challenges, such as hazardous materials disasters, and famine and resource scarcity resulting from urban fighting. Urban Convergence The urban operational space (‘opspace’) is one of ‘convergence’. As any ‘beat cop’ that has patrolled an urban setting can attest the diversity of urban terrain demands a flexible and adaptive approach to working the streets—and subways and high-rise structures ranging from office towers to housing projects. This convergence is often most visible during critical events and disasters. These range from ‘bush’ fires at the urban-wildland interface exacerbated by sprawl to damage to urban infrastructure as seen in Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina through the collapse of high-rise structures as seen in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. All of these events involved complex, multidisciplinary, AFP / Stringer / Getty Images Fellows Jul 4, 2018 | 00:00 GMT 7 mins read New Wars in the City: Global Cities – Global Slums By Dr. John P. Sullivan Global Fellow Dr. John P. Sullivan Global Fellow