Urban Vulnerability to Terrorism
Outline
• Reflect on what terrorism means.
• Define terrorism.
• Link to several urban policy realms
– Public interest
– Architecture
– Security Zones
– Displaced Risk
– Values-Vulnerability nexus
• What do you think that terrorism is?
• PollEverywhere
• Definitions of Terrorism
• Does 9/11 Portend a New Paradigm for
Studying Cities?
• Appeared in Urban Affairs Review in
September, 2003
– Highly regarded urban policy journal
• Definition of Terrorism offered by Savitch:
– “By terror, I mean the purposeful and deliberate
targeting of noncombatants with acts of violence.
Terrorists often operate in clandestine groups;
they wear no uniforms and carry no insignia.
Terrorism kills, maims, or kidnaps people
indiscriminately to intimidate them or instill
widespread fear. The characteristic of
indiscriminately attacking noncombatants
distinguishes terror from conventional warfare…”
(106).”
Definition offered by the FBI
"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the
following three characteristics:
– Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate
federal or state law;
– Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian
population; (ii) to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion; OR (iii) to
affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping
– Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of
the U.S.
Emphasis added to “OR” to dramatize point. This definition was accessed at: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition on 10-10-14.
Can terrorism ever be defined as a
good thing?
• In 18th Century France, the answer was yes.
• Reign of Terror (1793-4) sought to ensure the
goals of the French Revolution.
– Many viewed the elites, including the R.C. Church,
as trying to quash expanding civil rights.
Different ways of thinking about
terrorism and cities
4. The Public Interest
Determining the public interest
• Urban planners and policy makers often seek
to shape the city in ways that advance ‘the
public interest.’
• But, how will you know what the public
interest is?
– How should a New York City planner decide whose
public interest is represented?
• 50 % against; 35% for; 15% undecided
• What is the ‘public interest’ in this case?
• Should the mosque be built?
2. Architecture
• Can architecture be terroristic? Can urban
policy be terroristic?
• After the World Trade Center.
When Bad Buildings Happen to Good People
--Marshall Berman
When Bad Buildings Happen to Good People
--Marshall Berman
Determining the public interest
• Urban planners and policy makers often seek
to shape the city in ways that advance ‘the
public interest.’
• But, how will you know what the public
interest is?
– How should a New York City planner decide whose
public interest is represented?
• 50 % against; 35% for; 15% undecided
• What is the ‘public interest’ in this case?
• Should the mosque be built?
3. Fortress Cities
• Permanent alterations
Cocoons of security for large events
• NATO Conference
• Cardiff, UK, 2014
The more things change…
4. Displaced Risk
• Cocoons of highly securitized areas displace
risk to areas just outside them.
Belfast
5. Values-Vulnerability Nexus
• "Vulnerability is an independent, active
process that is shaped by the choices humans
make, not--as so often understood by the
public--an inherent dependent state that is
revealed by an external event. Because
vulnerability is such a potent driver of hazard
and because it is so sensitive to human
actions, much more can be done to reduce
vulnerability than to affect risks, which tend to
come from less accessible sources" (22).
Mitchell (2003) Urban Vulnerability to Terrorism as Hazard
Values expressed in:
• Architecture
• Security policy
• Public interest
– All influenced to some extent by planners
Keep in mind, the values that create terror are varied; so too are the
opportunities to shape and influence those values.
Outline
• Reflect on what terrorism means.
• Define terrorism.
• Link to several urban policy realms
– Architecture
– Security Zones
– Displaced Risk
– Public Interest
– Values-Vulnerability Nexus