295 Katarína Svitková Contemporary security from the urban standpoint: Cities in the face of risks and threats poses a real challenge to prevent existing threats from materialising. 3.2.1. Armed conflicts When analysing armed conflicts in all their different dimensions, it is also worth considering them from the urban standpoint, particularly where the possibility of taking or recovering key cities can be seen as a strategic advantage. Recently, we have seen the role that cities (pointed out as targets or transformed into theatres in the military sense) have played in intra-state conflicts in relation to the “Arab Spring” processes. In the same way, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown that technological supremacy does not automatically lead to success in operations that are played out on urban terrain29. Of course, it could be argued that the geographical delimitations of conflicts, as well as the urban-rural distinction, follow the logic of the location of key resources (water, valuable or strategic minerals, fertile land, etc.), as well as being affected by a large number of specific factors in each conflict. However, the characteristics of the cities that we have described previously turn them into theatres for armed conflicts around the world. The Spanish Armed Forces have Guidelines for Combat in Urbanised Areas (CZURB)30 that acknowledge the limitations and specificities at the operative and tactical level. The document is made up of various sections covering issues specific to the urban environment (density, mobility, tactics, logistics, command and control, and information, among others), and it also differentiates between offensive and defensive operations. Its 10 chapters and 8 annexes go into detail on tactical and technical aspects related to combat in urbanised areas. Here, it resembles similar documents produced by other countries, like the American Doctrine for Joint Urban Operations, published in 200231; a document that also focuses on capacities and tasks that are unique to, or significantly conditioned by, the urban environment at the operational combat level. 3.2.2. Transnational terrorism and WMD 29 HILLS, op. cit., p. 245. 30 Training and Doctrine Command. OR7-023, Guidelines. Combat in urbanised areas (non-classified), 2003. 31 Joint Chiefs of Staff. Doctrine for Joint Urban Operations, Joint Publication 3-06, Septiembre 2002.
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