De la menace atomique aux «conflits de faible intensité» : L'emprise croissante de la guerre sur la ville

Abstract

From atomic threat to «low intensity» conflicts. The increasing impact of war on the city The history of human conflicts fuses together with the relations between the city and war. From the atomic destruction of the City of Hiroshima to the dismantling of the Berlin wall with pickaxes, the nuclear dissuasion strategy has driven the scene of conflict out to the fringes of the major Western metropolises. With the end of the cold war, multi-cultural cities have become the focal areas of «low intensity» conflicts. Contemporary war, in its many different forms, has taken the city hostage, as shown by the suicide attacks in New York and Washington at the dawning of the new millennium.