This research will focus on various U.S. urban development initiatives in selective regions of the capitalist “periphery” during the Cold War. The Greek architect and urban planner Constantinos Doxiadis was from the very beginning at the centre of these initiatives. The aim of this project is to investigate Doxiadis’ role, examining his relations with the U.S. staffs, exploring the basic principles of his theory and evaluating his work not only in terms of applied architecture and urban planning but firstly in terms of its ideological-political context. More specifically, this research aspires to shed light on Doxiadis’ involvement, highlighting the strong influence of the then dominant theory of modernisation on his thinking and interpreting his work as a particular implementation of the U.S. national security policy and the U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine. These urban development initiatives have to be understood as part of a broader Cold War strategy, given that the modernisation of the “developing” world, as a method for containing the communist threat, was the primary goal of the U.S. cadres.

The research will be based on an interdisciplinary approach, utilising critical tools from the fields of architecture, urban studies, human geography, critical geopolitics, international relations, development studies, postcolonial studies, and critical security studies. Regarding research methodologies, the project will rely on primary sources and archival research, combining them with secondary data analysis. Through this study, data from Constantinos Doxiadis Archives and Ford Foundation Records will come to light, highlighting the geopolitical dimensions of the U.S. urban development interventions in the “developing” world. The reading of these interventions through the U.S. national security doctrine lens will enrich with valuable historical evidence the ongoing research on the urbanisation of the Global South and its genealogies.