The need for a systemic approach to urban security

In populous and rapidly growing cities across Africa and Asia, security is provided by a plurality of centrally governed state institutions and locally embedded service providers. Peter Albrecht from the Danish Institute for International Studies argues that urban security should be approached as a system of service providers rather than a number of distinct state and non-state actors. He addressed this point at the event ‘Plural Security in the City’, which was organized by the University of Amsterdam, the Conflict Research Unit of Clingendael Institute and the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law in Amsterdam on 22 October.