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2. Foreign Policy for an Urban World: Global Governance and the Rise of Cities
- Author:
- Peter Engelke
- Publication Date:
- 08-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Cities are shaping our collective fate in nearly every respect. As the predominant locus of human settlement, cities already wield considerable power and will continue to increase their influence in the decades to come. Cities generate most of the world's wealth. They are the places where citizenship and political participation are defined, redefined, and contested. They are the sites where global challenges ranging from climate change and natural resource depletion to international security problems are felt. In other words, we have seen the future, and it is urban. If humankind's most pressing challenges are to be solved during this century, the world's foreign and security policy establishments must not only become more cognizant of mass urbanization, but begin creating the processes that will productively integrate cities within global governance structures. These policy establishments are already behind the curve, for cities have been going about building parallel global governance structures on their own for some time now. They have become important actors in shaping global politics, helping to forge new patterns of transnational relations.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, International Security, Governance, and Urbanization
3. The Security of Cities: Ecology and Conflict on an Urbanizing Planet
- Author:
- Peter Engelke
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Humankind recently crossed a historic threshold: over half of all human beings now live in cities. In contrast to most of human history, cities have become the default condition for human habitation almost everywhere on earth. Urbanization is proceeding rapidly and at unprecedented scales in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These regions are poised to join Latin America, Europe, North America, and Australia as having more people living in cities than in rural areas. Between 2010 and 2050, the world's urban population is expected to grow by 3 billion people—a figure roughly equal to the world's total population in 1950—with the great majority living in developing-world cities.3 Our species, in other words, is already an urban one and will become even more so throughout this century.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Development, Environment, Natural Resources, Urbanization, and Developing World
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Australia, and North America