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ABSTRACT
The concept of power provides a useful analytical framework through which to analyse the political relationships between non-state armed groups, marginalised territories and populations in cities. Its examination in the context of urban-based non-state armed groups contributes to our understanding of the local politics of armed conflict. Local power, defined as the ability of an armed actor to coerce or co-opt people to abide by a set of rules in a specific urban area, is a relational concept profoundly influenced by the urban space. The main specificity of urban-based power is the propensity of cities, as hubs for different forms of contestation, to concentrate resources and illicit economies favouring non-state armed activity. This concentration, or power density, plays an important role in transitions from armed conflict to peace: the main argument here is that power density facilitates the transition of armed conflict into other, mainly criminal, forms of organised violence while retaining their spatial concentration in marginalised areas (peripheries, slums). The article discusses the conceptual aspects of local power and proceeds to an empirical case study focused on the Colombian city of Medellín, affected by a variety of non-state armed actors and a transition from ideologically-driven to criminal armed groups during the 2000s.
Notes
1. See next section for a discussion on how conflict and military studies have identified urban areas as key site of violence.
2. David Kilcullen argues that more connectivity between people due to new technologies, as well as the concentration of populous cities in coastal areas makes non-state violence in cities more likely. Kilcullen, Out of the Mountains, 28.
3. Sampaio, “Conflict Expansion to Cities,” 22.
4. Beall, Goodfellow and Rodgers, “Cities, Conflict and State Fragility”; and Bollens, “Managing Urban Ethnic Conflict.”
5. See, for instance: Arjona, Rebelocracy; Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence; and Mampilly, Rebel Rulers.
6. Arjona, Rebelocracy, 2.
7. Bahl, “Murder Capital to Modern Miracle,” 18.
8. Colak and Pearce, “Securing the Global City?” 207.
9. Tremaria and Wienand, “Paramilitarism in a Post-Demobilisation Context?” 35–36.
10. O’Donnell, Counterpoints, 138.
11. Ibid., 138.
12. Cited in: Freedman, “Strategic Studies and the Problem of Power,” 12.
13. Ibid., 18.
14. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence, 12.
15. Büscher, “African Cities and Violent Conflict,” 200.
16. Kilcullen, Out of the Mountains, 40.
17. Risse, “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood,” 4.
18. Bollens, “Managing Urban Ethnic Conflict,” 111; and Davis, “Non-State Armed Actors,” 222.
19. Schuberth, “Challenge of Community-Based Armed Groups,” 299, 304.
20. Nye, The Future of Power, 6.
21. Dahl, “The Concept of Power,” 203.
22. This is an amalgamation and adaptation of the ‘properties of power relation’ in Dahl, “The Concept of Power,” 204–205; and Nye, The Future of Power, 6.
23. Freedman, “Strategic Studies and the Problem of Power,” 14.
24. Ibid., 18.
25. Mamouri, “Southern Suburbs Stand Apart in Beirut”; and Maruf, “In Somalia, Businesses Face ‘Taxation’ by Militants.”
26. Beall, Goodfellow and Rodgers, “Cities, Conflict and State Fragility,” 11–16.
27. See, for instance, the Urban Warfare Project at the US-based Modern War Institute: https://mwi.usma.edu/urban-warfare-project/.
28. Hills, Future War in Cities, 8.
29. Davis, “Non-State Armed Actors,” 225.
30. Elkus and Sullivan, “Command of the Cities.”
31. Hoffman, Conflict in the 21st Century, 15.
32. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018 Revision.
33. Clunan and Trinkunas, “Alternative Governance,” 99.
34. Ibid., 105.
35. See note 34 above.
36. Maninger, “The Urbanisation of Conflict,” 68.
37. Ibid., 68.
38. Bollens, “Managing Urban Ethnic Conflict,” 111.
39. Mehler, “Oligopolies of Violence in Africa South of the Sahara,” 539.
40. Von Einsiedel, “Civil War Trends,” 5.
41. Schuberth, “Challenge of Community-Based Armed Groups,” 297.
42. Menkhaus, “Non-State Security Providers,” 10.
43. De la Calle, “Compliance vs. Constraints,” 428.
44. Staniland, “Cities on Fire,” 1628.
45. Villa, Medellín: Territorio, Conflicto y Estado, 71.
46. Echeverri, Informalidad y Urbanismo Social en Medellín, 15.
47. Bahl, “Murder Capital to Modern Miracle,” 17.
48. Vergara, “Se Comportan Igual Las Tasas,” 7.
49. Echeverri, Informalidad y Urbanismo Social en Medellín, 15–16.
50. Ibid.
51. Resolution Concerning Decent Work, 25, 53.
52. Betancur, Approaches to the Regularisation, 3rd paragraph.
53. Colby and Fukuyama, “Half a Miracle.”
54. “Proyecto Memoria de la Violencia,” 5–7.
55. Ibid.
56. Dávila, “Violencia Urbana, Conflicto y Crimen,” 115.
57. Cañas, “Conflictos Urbanos,” 119.
58. Ceballos, “Violencia Reciente en Medellín,” 389.
59. Jaramillo and Sanín, “Crime, (Counter-)Insurgency and the Privatisation,” 21.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. See note 57 above.
63. FARC-EP, Secretariado del Estado Mayor Central, “Planteamiento Estratégico,” VII Conferencia Nacional, p. 117. Cited in: Guerrilla y Población Civil.
64. Abierta, “La Historia de las Milicias en Medellín Pasa por Justicia y Paz.”
65. Ibid.
66. Abierta, “La Alianza entre el Bloque Metro y Las Bandas de Medellín.”
67. Medina Franco, Historia de las Milicias de Medellín, 37.
68. Hanson,”Colombia’s Right-Wing Paramilitaries and Splinter Groups”.
69. Statement by Manuel Ramírez in: Rozema, “Paramilitares y Violencia Urbana,” 542.
70. Jaramillo and Sanín, “Crime, (Counter-)Insurgency and the Privatization,” 30.
71. Blair, Hernández and Muñoz Guzmán, “Conflictividades Urbanas vs. ‘Guerra’ Urbana,” 44.
72. Verdad Abierta, “La Alianza entre el Bloque Metro y Las Bandas de Medellín.”
73. Espinal et al., “Medellín: El Complejo Camino de la Competencia Armada,” 124.
74. Ibid., 124.
75. Giraldo Ramírez, “Conflicto Armado Urbano,” 102.
76. See note 72 above.
77. Rozema, “Paramilitares y Violencia Urbana,” 543.
78. Blair, Hernández and Muñoz Guzmán, “Conflictividades Urbanas vs. ‘Guerra’ Urbana,” 47.
79. See note 3 above.
80. See note 77 above.
81. Duncan, “Del Campo a la Ciudad en Colombia,” 29.
82. Rozema, “Urban DDR,” 439.
83. Ibid..
84. Mampilly, Rebel Rulers, 78.
85. Blair, Hernández and Muñoz Guzmán, “Conflictividades Urbanas vs. ‘Guerra’ Urbana,” 40–41.
86. Espinal, et al., “Medellín: El Complejo Camino de la Competencia Armada,” 117.
87. Cited in: Blair, Grisales Hernández and Muñoz Guzmán, “Conflictividades Urbanas vs. ‘Guerra’ Urbana,” 36.
88. Tremaria and Wienand, “Paramilitarism in a Post-Demobilisation Context?” 34.
89. Ibid., 144.
90. Medellín: Memorias, 90; and Montero, “Violencia en las Comunas de Medellín.”
91. Felbab-Brown, “Crime–War Battlefields,” 150.
92. Giraldo Ramírez, “Conflicto Armado Urbano,” 108; and Medellín: Memorias, 91.
93. Felbab-Brown, “Reducing Urban Violence.”
94. Moncada, “Urban Violence,” 240.
95. Colak and Pearce, “Securing the Global City?”
96. Isacson, “Medellín: Two Steps Forward,” 6–9.
97. See note 94 above.
98. Tremaria and Wienand, “Paramilitarism in a Post-Demobilization Context?” 43.
99. El Tiempo, “Operación Orión.”
100. Tremaria and Wienand, “Paramilitarism in a Post-Demobilisation,” 43.
101. Ceballos, “Violencia Reciente en Medellín,” 387.
102. Jaramillo and Gil, “Medellín en Su Laberinto,” 134.
103. Ibid., 135.
104. Ibid., 134.
105. Alonso Espinal and Valencia Agudelo, Balance del Proceso de Desmovilización, Desarme y Reinserción.
106. Medellín: Memorias, 220.
107. Valencia and Montoya, “Las Bandas Criminales y El Postconflicto.”
108. Ibid.
109. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, “Peace and Security in Bogotá,” 13.
110. Data query on ‘Annual Urban Population at Mid-Year’, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanisation Prospects 2018 https://population.un.org/wup/DataQuery/.
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Antônio Sampaio
Antônio Sampaio is a Research Associate for Conflict, Security and Development at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He conducts research on urban security policies and the effects of armed conflicts on cities. He has advised NATO on the development of a joint urban operations doctrine document. Antônio is also a member of the expert network of the Global Initiative on Transnational Organised Crime. He previously worked as a journalist in Brazil’s Globonews TV.