Drawing on new archival documents and interviews, this book demonstrates the evolving role of international politics in Olympic security planning. Olympic security concerns changed forever following the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee¿s (IOC) choice to ignore security after the attack in Munich left individual Olympic Games Organizing Committees to organize, fund, and provide security for the major international event. Future Olympic hosts planned security amidst increasing numbers of international terrorist attacks, and with the Cold War in full swing. For some Olympic hosts, Olympic security now represented their nation¿s largest ever military operations. By the time the IOC made security more of a priority in the early 1980s, the trends in Olympic security were set for the future.

Austin Duckworth is an independent scholar who most recently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, USA in Physical Culture and Sports Studies. His research interests are international relations, security, and sport.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Growth of the Olympics as International Spectacle.- Chapter 3: Passing the Torch, 1972-1980.- Chapter 4: International Liaison and the 1984 Olympic Games.- Chapter 5: 'Decisive Political Ways': The 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.- Chapter 6: 'A most spectacular example of cross-border collaboration': Albertville and Barcelona 1992.- Chapter 7: Atlanta Attacked: the Centennial Park Bombing.- Chapter 8: The Post-2000 Olympic Games.- Chapter 9: Technology, Pandemics, and the Future of Olympic Security.-  Chapter 10: Conclusion.