ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses "Military Operations in Urban Terrain" (MOUT), arguing that MOUT is a doctrine that systematically blurs distinctions observed in traditional warfare, such as those between public and private space as well as those between military forces and civilians. It then reviews some of the arguments that rationalize the new political and academic interest in urban warfare. The chapter investigates topics such as global urbanization, the increase in low-intensity conflicts, and the paradigm shift in military sociology. State sovereignty and military suppression mingle with policing and biopolitical surveillance via a range of administrative organizations and bureaucratic mechanisms as well as through humanitarian actions. As demonstrated by the operations in Afghanistan and Palestine, biopolitical and bureaucratic mechanisms, micropractices, and urbicide/spaciocide are not, as is often suggested, replacing state sovereignty. They are simply some of the changing ways in which sovereignty is being constructed.
