Urban Warfare

An Unfortunately Necessary Skill

Urban warfare. That’s an unsettling topic to discuss, and certainly, no one wants to ever end up dealing with such a thing in their own lives. But take a look at the world, my friends. There are already people dealing with it, and they certainly did not want to. Societal collapse will be, in my opinion, a rapid thing. But the speed of it is relative to the overall gradual speed of climate collapse. It will be a process, one that grinds for quite some time, and there will be many stages. Depending upon where one happens to be in the world, one of those stages could very well be an invasion by another nation into your own. Or, it could be a governmental crackdown from within in some attempt at martial law to try and control growing chaos. And elsewhere it could even be a violent upheaval of a contested military coup within your borders. For some, it could be a combination of the three or many other possibilities. We just don’t really know. What we do need to know are some ways in which we can fight such a war, should it ever become necessary.

There are many good books out there to help prepare one for such things, but recently I found this one, and it happens to be a very good and recently updated guide. Not comprehensive by any means, but think of it as more of the “Quick Start” guide that comes along with a massive manual when you buy a new printer or Ninja Air Fryer. It covers the basics and introduces the reader to concepts that might otherwise have to be learned the hard way on the battlefield their community has become overnight.

So, give it a read. If you happen to live in Eastern Europe, maybe print it out and keep it in your pocket.

John Spencer is one of the world’s leading scholars and experts in the field of urban warfare. He has studied, taught, and written about urban warfare for over a decade. He has conducted field research on urban battles around the world, from Iraq, Israel, India, and Panama, to Nagorno-Karabakh. He has advised militaries around the world to get better at military operations in urban areas. He is also a veteran of urban warfare having two urban-centric combat deployments to Iraq – one during the invasion in 2003 and again in Baghdad in 2008 during the U.S. “surge” and Battle of Sadr City. He is an internationally recognized subject matter expert who regularly consults for the United States Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), United Nations, and many other military and national security organizations.

You can give it a read below, or download the PDF here.