Remaking the Urban: International Actors and the Post-war Reconstruction of Cities

Abstract

Abstract The postwar reconstruction of cities has become an arena of international actors who mobilize different narratives of power and reshape conflict using other means. This article highlights how international actors use urban reconfigurations as a tool for intervening in the broader postconflict reconstruction of societies. First, it shows that the postwar reconstruction of cities is not only a set of spatial and economic processes of remaking the urban environment, but also a discursive practice of highlighting hegemonies through space. The article argues that reconstruction entanglements in inter-imperial space reflect both the endurance and the emergence of hegemonies of power. Second, urban reconstruction and other spatial interventions in contested urban space often prolong the tensions originating from war. In cities where destruction was caused by a mixture of internal and external actors, and where previous warring factions have to coexist in the postwar arrangements, like in Sarajevo and Beirut, domestic and international agendas reinforce and redirect one another. The article shows that the entanglement of local, national, and international actors in reconstructions play a role in transforming both place and conflict dynamics after peace treaties are signed.