Operations of force: NATO, Belgrade and the inflection of Urbicide

Abstract

This thesis considers the manner by which the contemporary and inherently flexible concept of ‘urbicide’ may be inflected and expanded by a focused exploration of one particular urban incursion. The particular focus is on NATO’s incursion on Belgrade during 1999 (and beyond). Drawing on connections found in economics, law, media and technology, the research analyses strategies deployed by the military to control the physical and psychological space of Belgrade. NATO’s 1999 targeting of Belgrade in Operation Allied Force becomes the means through which to expose more covert manifestations of urbicide. Considering that Belgrade was targeted by NATO at the end of the twentieth century, the urbicide of Belgrade offers perhaps the first insight into the changing modes of urbicide into the twenty-first century. The political context against which Belgrade has been transformed is explored alongside urban, architectural, infrastructural and landscape re-developments. The thesis’ findings elaborate and extend the initial position of the thesis that the 1999 bombing of Belgrade has been an attempt to eliminate the historically complex and heterogeneous city of Belgrade. The concluding proposition is that the 1999 urbicide was also an attempt to eliminate Balkanism. The radical potential of Balkanism – specifically through the Yugoslav case – is that it demonstrates alternative ways a society can be set-up – in terms of economics, to urbanism and architecture. The thesis further suggests various models of how societies might interrogate urbicide in order to re-think space and architecture, as well as resist control.