What the Cities of the Future Will Look Like

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The cities of the future are here—or, at least, in the works. From Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s dreams of Neom, a $500 billion planned city, to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions for the city of Xiongan, which he calls his “personal initiative,” so-called smart cities are being built from the ground up, to considerable global skepticism.

In this edition of Flash Points, we explore how cities, new and old, provide glimpses into global leaders’ ambitions and how they’re changing as the surveillance state expands, urban populations grow, and local governments become increasingly important to state-level diplomacy.—Chloe Hadavas