The Urbicide of Beirut: Geographical Perspectives on war and cities

The relations between political violence and cities remain largely under-explored. This research project focuses empirically on Beirut, and studies how the State and non-state actors like irregular militias and private security contractors coexist in everyday urban spaces both in times of war and in times of peace, and how the boundaries between state and nonstate often blur.

Using a range of qualitative research methods, the study explores two different moments of conflict in Beirut: the civil war (1975-1990) and the clashes of May 2008. It aims to unpack the accepted assumptions - both in academia and in foreign policy - about ‘chronic’ political violence and 'lack' of state sovereignty, reassesses these dynamics in terms of everyday trade-off between state and non-state actors.