Terrorism, Risk and the Global City Towards Urban Resilience Jon Coaffee TERRORISM, RISK AND THE GLOBAL CITY This page has been left blank intentionally Terrorism, Risk and the Global City Towards Urban Resilience JON COAFFEE Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, UK © Jon Coaffee 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Jon Coaffee has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Coaffee, Jon. Terrorism, risk and the global city : towards urban resilience. -- Rev. ed. 1. City planning--England--London. 2. Terrorism--England-- London--Prevention. 3. City planning--Political aspects. 4. Terrorism--Prevention. I. Title 307.1'216'09421-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coaffee, Jon. Terrorism, risk and the global city: towards urban resilience / by Jon Coaffee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-7428-3 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-0-7546-9046-7 (ebook) 1. City planning--England--London. 2. Terrorism--England--London--Prevention. 3. City and town life--England--London--Psychological aspects. 4. Public buildings--Security measures-- England--London. 5. Crime prevention and architectural design--England--London. 6. Risk perception--England--London. 7. Emergency management--England--London. 8. London Terrorist Bombings, London, England, 2005, I. Title. HT169.G72L354 2009 307.1'21609421--dc22 2009012093 ISBN 9780754674283 (hbk) ISBN 9780754690467 (ebk.V) Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii PART I TRANSFORMING CITIES IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM 1 Introduction: Terrorism, Risk and the Global City 3 2 Urban Restructuring and the Development of Defensive Landscapes 13 3 Controlling Urban Security Discourse 39 4 Risk Society, Resilient Planning, and the Global Terrorist Threat 65 PART II THE CITY OF LONDON’S RESPONSE 5 Constructing and Reinforcing the Ring of Steel 93 6 Distributing the Financial Risk of Terrorism 135 7 Framing, Legitimising and Negotiating the City’s Response to Terrorist Risk 167 PART III TERRORISM, RISK AND THE FUTURE CITY: TOWARDS URBAN RESILIENCE 8 Beating the Bombers: A Decade of Counter Terrorism in the City of London 205 vi Terrorism, Risk and the Global City 9 Terrorism and Future Urbanism in the Wake of 9/11 231 10 London Prepared? Resilience, Reputation, and Securing the Global City 261 Bibliography 305 Index 353 List of Figures 2.1 The initial security segments in Belfast city centre (1972/74) 25 2.2 The maximum extent of the Belfast security segment (‘ring of steel’) in 1976 26 2.3 The Belfast ring of steel in the 1980s 28 2.4 An example of security gates around Belfast city centre in the mid-1990s 32 2.5 A swing barrier at the entrance to Belfast city centre, which replaced the 1970s steel gates 33 3.1 The vulnerability of the exterior of the ring of steel: the Christmas/New Year bombing campaign 1991/92 62 5.1 Map of Provisional IRA incidents in the City of London in the early 1990s 96 5.2 Access restrictions in the City of London (1993) 110 5.3 Entrance into the ‘ring of plastic’ 111 5.4 The City of London’s Ring of Steel (1993) 112 5.5 Police warnings of the risk of terrorism 122 5.6 The ‘concretisation’ of the ring of plastic 125 5.7 The City of London’s extended ring of steel (1997) 129 6.1 The London postcode districts used by Pool Reinsurance 154 7.1 The Foster-designed building on the site of the St Mary Axe bomb 200 8.1 The Canary Wharf Tower in the London Docklands 208 8.2 Security features at the entry to the Canary Wharf complex 209 8.3 The Docklands Iron Collar 211 8.4 Signs at the entry points into the Iron Collar 213 9.1 Crude defensive security outside US Embassy, London (2003) 240 9.2 A ring of concrete around the Houses of Parliament in central London (2003) 240 10.1 A new entry point into the ring of steel 267 10.2 The City of London’s public alert system 268 10.3 Road closures at the Olympic Park site 273 10.4 The health and safety cordon surrounding the Olympic Park site 274 10.5 Congestion charging cameras in Central London 281 viii Terrorism, Risk and the Global City 10.6 ANPR cameras in central Manchester – installed in 2008 284 10.7 Crash-rated bollard installed in 2008 in the Government Security Zone 288 10.8 Reinforced bi-steel barriers outside the Houses of Parliament 288 10.9 Security barriers disguised as flower bed ‘planters’ at Canary Wharf 290 10.10 The protective security features at the Gherkin in the City of London 290 10.11 The vehicle control barrier outside the Emirates Stadium, North London 291 10.12 Security balustrades along Whitehall, London 291 10.13 The proposed extent of New York’s ‘ring of steel’ 295 10.14 New security cameras installed in Manhattan in 2007 296 List of Tables 2.1 Attributes of sustainability relevant to crime prevention and community safety 23 2.2 A decade of change in Belfast – 1974-84 29 3.1 Typology of interdictory space 46 3.2 Types of crime displacement 61 5.1 Provisional IRA incidents in the City of London in the early 1990s 97 5.2 Stages in the evolution of the ring of steel 98 6.1 Terrorism Insurance premium increases as a result of the Pool Re rate review of 1993 153 7.1 Key managerial views of terrorist risk in the City 177 7.2 Opinions of 1993 security arrangements in the City 181 7.3 Additional responses to the public notice (March 1994) 187 7.4 Views of the neighbouring authorities on the ring of steel 190 9.1 Maximum losses faced by the insurance industry for acts of terrorism 256 This page has been left blank intentionally Preface The book on which this volume is based, Terrorism, Risk and the City, was published in 2003 at a time when London, along with many other global cities, was coming to terms with the expanded threat of international terrorism and were reappraising their counter-terrorism measures accordingly. The original book offered both a historical and a contemporary account of the physical, financial and managerial measures utilised in the financial cores of London, ranging between the years 1992-2002, to reduce the risk of terrorist attack. In addition Terrorism, Risk and the City incorporated the initial changes in urban securitisation stimulated by the events on September 11 2001 (henceforth 9/11). The reaction to Terrorism, Risk and the City exceeded expectations, receiving positive reviews from both the academic and professional security press. This was partly a function of timing as well as being a relatively uncontested field of inquiry. Since 9/11 this area of research has expanded significantly with many accounts being written regarding the impact, urban or otherwise, of the so-called ‘War on Terror’ on the functioning of cities, societies and states. Many of these accounts draw upon material from Terrorism, Risk and the City in their own analysis. Many commentators have also contacted me requesting an updated version of this book. As with all rapidly moving fields of policy inquiry, research material dates rapidly as new data comes to light, as political priorities change and as academic critique in the field develops. In time, and subsequent to the publication of Terrorism, Risk and the City, systems of counter-terrorist security and management in London, as elsewhere, have developed significantly and broadened in scope, both in terms of the methods of attack to be deterred as well as the range of geographical targets to be defended: in short many sites in London, not just the financial zones, are now perceived be under threat of attack and hence require strategies of security and defence. Likewise, the vocabulary used by policy makers to articulate such changes has also altered. Post-9/11, metaphors of resilience have commonly been used to describe how cities and nations attempt to ‘bounce-back’ from disaster, and to describe the embedding of security and contingency features into planning and management systems. Traditionally, most emergency policy centred upon reacting to a disaster once occurred and in developing appropriate plans to create ‘a business as usual’ situation as soon as possible. However, more contemporary approaches view resilience as both reactive and proactive which brings together aspects of preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Such new logics of anticipatory policy have been implemented in large part to deal with the changing nature of the terrorist threat facing London at a city-wide scale. This has occurred xii Terrorism, Risk and the Global City most noticeable through managerial measures and strategies developed through London resilience partnerships to deal with a variety of counter-terrorism and other ‘emergency’ scenarios. Since the publication of Terrorism, Risk and the City, London has also suffered its own incidents of internationally inspired terrorism – most notably on 7 July 2005 (henceforth 7/7) and a series of other unsuccessful or thwarted attacks. 7/7 occurred the day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games – a mega-event which is now facing enormous security planning.