Seeing cities as Gordian knots of geopolitics, he gathers an impressive range of case studies to bolster his analysis.

Not only that, New York is also America’s densest city: its narrow, traffic jammed streets make collecting all that garbage a logistical Gordian knot.

The Bush/Cheney hubris was the belief that, like the Gordian knot, it could all be untangled with a mighty sword-stroke of American military power.