I was thinking about what is the biggest city in the world located near a hostile border. Of course Seoul, South Korea came to mind and that is less than 10 miles to North Korea so that would win hands down.
So I got to thinking are there any other large cities near hostile borders. For the purposes of this thread let’s say large means over a million people or it’s the largest city in the country (if that country has no city over a million people)
And as for “near” let’s say less than 50 miles (80 km)
I think we also have to exclude very small countries.
Rome, the capital of Italy, is right up there against the Vatican City State, but that’s something of a special case, and the Vatican is hardly hostile (and, even if it were, hardly threatening).
Geneva’s right nest to France. No hostility there today, but there has been in the past.
Vienna, from memory, is about 25km from the Czech border, which used to be the Iron Curtain.
Jerusalem is right up there against the Palestinian territories (or, depending on who you speak to, part of them).
Kolkatta is maybe 50km from the border with Bangladesh, which of course used to be East Pakistan, and not well disposed to India.
I’m open to correction, but IIRC Jerusalem was split by the 1948 ceasefire line, then Israel occupied the Western half as a fall-out from the six-day war, and finally annexed the Western half and proclaimed the whole city as its capital. Naturally, the annexation is not recognised by all interested parties.
Lahore, Pakistan (population about 10 million) and Amristar, India (pop about 1 million) are both about 15 or 20 miles from the India-Pakistan border and separated from each other by about 35 miles. Islamabad (pop about 2 million) is a little more than 50 miles from the India-controlled portion of Kashmir.
Damascus (population 1 million+) is about 33 miles from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Rwanda is or recently was hostile to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kigali, Rwanda, doesn’t have quite a million people, and it’s barely within 50 miles of the DR Congo border.
Santiago, Chile (population 5 million+) is 33 miles from the Argentina border as the crow flies. Things are calmer today, but the two countries almost went to war in the late 1970s.
During the Cold War Zaire was an ally of the US, whereas the Republic of Congo tilted towards Marxism and the Soviets. Their respective capital cities, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, have 11 million people living in them and are about a mile apart, directly across the Congo River from each other. There were definite military tensions between them in the Cold War, although there was never really any question of war breaking out.
I’d say that San Diego/Tijuana and El Paso/Juarez are also cities near hostile borders. Of course, there are no open military tensions between the US and Mexico, but what with all the drug wars spilling across the border, plus illegal immigration tensions, a case could be made that the borders are indeed hostile.
Tbilisi, Georgia (Caucasus, not Dixie) is well beyond the specified distance from the legal Russian border, but less than 40 miles at its closest point to Russian-controlled South Ossetia.
Can’t offer a better suggestion, but I’m not sure Seoul would be the clear winner. It’s been years since I was at the DMZ, but as I recall, the bus ride from downtown Seoul was an hour or two. There is a certain amount of tension at the DMZ, of course, but Seoul isn’t exactly a border town. The greatest danger here is being bumped into by people who can’t look up from their cell phones.