Over the last decades, cities have re-appeared as battlegrounds. Urban centers have been central fighting grounds in ongoing conflicts and the starting block for revolutions. The role of the military has adapted to thetrend of lower intensity, but longer-lasting wars.
In a time of urbanization, globalization, and transnational crimes, urban civilians are particularly exposed. Today, approximately 50% of the world`s population lives in cities. It is estimated that this number will increase to 75% by the year 2050. Urban military operations have turned out to be a critical security issue in the twentyfirst century.
The Habitat Conference of 2012 wishes to draw attention to the tendency of utilizing cities as battlegrounds. We will look at how this affects urban infrastructure and living conditions for the urban civilians, and how new patterns of everyday life emerges.
Programme Habitat Day Conference 2012
9:00 Welcome speech
Synne Bergby, Chair person, Habitat Norway
9:10 Opening speech
Arvinn Gadgil (Norway), State Secretary, The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9: 25 Emerging perspectives on cities in conflict
Aisa Kirabo Kacyira (Rwanda), Deputy Executive Director of UN Habitat
10:00 Urban Geopolitics: thinking critically about security, state violence and vulnerability in the city
Simon Reid-Henry (UK), Reader in the School of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London and a senior fellow at the Peace Research Institute, Oslo.
10:35 Coffee break
10:45 Urban Warfare – How to Kill an Elephant
Ola Bøe-Hansen (Norway), Commander, Faculty Adviser at the Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College
11:25 When lives and livelihoods are destroyed – what can we do?
Martin Suvatne (Germany), Architect and planner, Shelter Adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council
12:00 Lunch
13:00 There goes the neighborhood
Nadine Elali (Lebanon), journalist, reporter for NOW Lebanon
13:30 The Tunisian Revolution
Lina Ben Mhenni (Tunisia), blogger, Human Rights activist, teacher in linguistics at the university in Tunis
14:00 Concluding remarks / discussion
Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, Ola Bøe-Hansen, Simon Reid-Henry, Lina Ben Mhenni
Moderator: Laila Bokhari, political scientist, researcher and writer.
For more updates on the programme check out Habitat Norway on Facebook.
The conference is free of charge. Please register attendance before the 27 September, to habitatnorway@gmail.com.
