Abstract
Journalists, pointing to the street battles, bombings, and homicides since the 1970s call it "the world's most dangerous city" and "a metropolis under siege. Migration, ethnic identity formation, the militarization of student politics, drug smuggling, gun running, informal housing, and the destructive effects of being in the epicenter of geopolitical conflicts all find their way into this far-reaching book. The source of urban violence, Gayer argues, is not located in the ideology of its participants, but in the "structure of political opportunities" as well as the "transformation in technologies of warfare" and "interconnections [with a] changing local, national and international environment" (p. 76).