From Internal Security to Urban Security: The Role Of European Cities. A comparison among territorial strategies for urban security in the cities of Modena, Lille and Tilburg

The paper has two aims. First of all, it wants to support the thesis in favour of the European cities’ key role in security. This means to specify the contents of what security really means today in Europe and at the local level, for example in terms of human security, safety and prevention (to say, working on social choesion, fighting poverty and radicalization or supporting integration). Secondly, it tries to legally justify, under the wider definition of “urban security”, the competences of European cities (that are normally medium ones, in terms of population) in managing security issues. This attempt involves a reflection on the role of National States, of the European Union (especially through the new European urban policy) and of networks of cities in security nowadays in Europe. To manage the complexity, the paper is developed as a case‐study that compares territorial strategy for urban security (mainly under the legal point of view) in three medium European cities (Modena, Lille and Tilburg).