The book contrasts Belfast, embedded within an uncertain shift from conflict to political settlement, with Johannesburg, engaged in postresolution reconciliation, to analyze, along different points of societal transition, the contributions of urban policymaking to peacemaking and peace-building.

It describes the differing roles - obstructive or facilitative - that contested cities can play amidst broader peace efforts, consistent with Bollens's contention that there are lessons in urban peace-building for constructing mutually tolerable living environments at the regional and national levels. Cities (and urban policies) are an essential locus for operationalizing visions of postconflict ethnic coexistence.