Linked Cities: A Brief Introduction
Berlin
With its populist destruction of the wall, and a reunification that has attempted to architecturally obliterate the past, it still suffers certain economic and social divisions and debates how the past might be commemorated.
Mostar
Before the outbreak of hostilities in 1990s, Mostar was a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional city and the process of reconstruction in the wake of the collapse of central state structures has been difficult; the anxieties and separatist tendencies of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs are all played out in the electoral, planning and economic politics of the city leading to increasing fragmentation and isolation.
Nicosia
Divided like Jerusalem, with a common Ottoman heritage, only half of it is in the EU; this is despite certain attempts at reunification; with a lively debate on how to re-inhabit the ‘deadzone’, ethnic, national and religious divisions remain.
Beirut
Reconstruction has been based upon the retention of Middle Eastern quarters; but it has been jolted by recent assassinations and set back by a war that was largely extraneous to its own concerns.
Kirkuk
On the edge of an increasingly autonomous Kurdish region, Kirkuk is succumbing to sectarian violence as property rights established under the previous regime are questioned and as its key economic role as an oil city renders it the focus of competition over resources.
Brussels
Although the state is formally united and Brussels is free of both physical partition and hard internal boundaries, ethno-linguistic divisions persist and conflict remains part of the city.