Brent Scowcroft Center Assistant Director Alex Ward writes for the National Interest on how the population shift to urban centers will affect the future of warfare:
With so many crises in the world, why should the United States care about the future of urban warfare?
Simply put, that is where people—to both protect and fight—and most of American interests will be. As the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 report noted, 60 percent of the world will live in cities by 2030, a marked increase from the 47 percent at the end of the twentieth century. Where the people go, so will the centers of gravity for “government, commerce, communications, and transportation activity.” In other words, if the United States wants to secure its interests in the future, it must do so in cities.