ABSTRACT
Risk assessment must be considered in terms of events that occur over time rather than focusing solely on incidents that might happen. The precursors might include the hazards that we face but also the exposure and vulnerability that we experience relative to these hazards. Turning our attention away from single incidents and on to the broad evaluation of factors that precede and follow incidents allows us to incorporate a more contextual view into our assessment of risk. The incident itself has a significant impact on its victims and the area surrounding the attack. But, this incident cannot be understood outside of the more general assessment of the factors that led up to the attack and the monumental changes that it spawned in its aftermath. The retrospective analysis of the precursors to the incident shows up not only a failure to prevent the breach of safe environments by determined terrorists but also illustrated the failures of imagination in the thinking of security agencies that were tasked to assess the risk of attack and plan ways of averting these outcomes.
