A Tale of Three Cities: Stalingrad, Hue and Mogadishu

Lessons in Urban Operations and Asymmetrical Warfare Doctrine

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, Chapman University (Counterinsurgency Training Center), language: English, abstract: This is a 40 page essay on three major urban battles; Stalingrad, Hue and Mogadishu. It offers an analysis and lessons learned for the contemporary operating environment. Increasingly, urban operations will be a requirement of counterinsurgency. For instance, generally speaking the area known as the Middle East is comprised of 18 Nations; is 4.3 million square miles, had a population of 326 million in 2002. 57% of this population resides in urban areas. For comparison, 25% of the population was urban in 1960 and current projections indicate that by the year 2015 that 70% of the population will be urban. Increasingly, military operations and or counter-insurgency operations within urban areas means that operations will increasingly include a succession of urban operations that literally will cross ethnic and cultural boundaries from one street to the next and will increase the complexity of operations....thus adding another layer of complexity to the hearts and minds campaign.