This book offers key concepts and practical guidance about the planner's role in countering terrorist risk. Public safety and security has always been a fundamental premise of successful public spaces and a material consideration in planning processes, but especially so since the events of 9/11. The most recent attacks in Berlin, Nice, Stockholm, London, Melbourne, Barcelona, New York, and elsewhere have led to a re-evaluation of security in many public locations. In these uncertain times, planners are increasingly seen as key stakeholders in national security and counter-terrorism endeavors, where the spatial configuration and aesthetic design of protective security interventions will have a crucial impact upon the vibrancy, resilience, and safety of urban centers both now and in the future. Illustrated with historic and contemporary international case studies, this book discusses many topics, including: the changing roles and responsibilities of planning, how security is increasingly becoming a statutory consideration in the planning process, the need for planners to engage with a range non-traditional stakeholders to facilitate better planning outcomes, the importance of planning in national and global politics, the ethics of planning decision-making, the importance of determining what is in the public interest, how to advance proportionate counter-terrorist security in plans that balance effectiveness with social and cultural factors, and the role of training and regulation in enforcing or encouraging the fulfillment of planning requirements.

Jon Coaffee is a Professor in Urban Geography at the University of Warwick. He has published widely, especially on the impact of terrorism and other security concerns on the functioning of urban areas.