This book explores the processes by which the practices of urban security and counter-terrorism have impacted upon the everyday experiences of the Western city.

Jon Coaffee is a professor in Urban Geography in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom and is an international expert in counter-terrorism, security and urban resilience. His work includes Terrorism, Risk and the City (2003); The Everyday Resilience of the City: How Cities Respond to Terrorism and Disaster (2008); Terrorism, Risk and the Global City - Towards Urban Resilience (2009); Sustaining and Securing the Olympic City (2011); Urban Resilience: Planning for Risk Crisis and Uncertainty (2016); Futureproof (2019) Resilience and Planning: Planning's Role in Countering Terrorism (2020).

Part 1: The search for urban security

1. Introduction: Security and the urban imagination
2. The city as target
3. Detonation boulevards

Part 2: Conventional tactics and techniques of urban security

4. Padded bunkers
5. Territorial security and the panoptical gaze
6. The fearful shock of 9/11 and the rise of military and urban geopolitics

Part 3: The longer term implications of 9/11

7. Normal protective streetscapes
8. Preparation and anticipation in the global War on Terror
9. Everyday terror prevention

Part 4: The future of urban security

10. Towards impenetrable and smart security
11. Pop-up security and the politics of exceptionality
12. Conclusions: Normalising urban security