ABSTRACT
The previous two chapters have highlighted how the nature of terrorist risk in the City was addressed differently by the agencies of security and the insurance industry. In both cases the governance role of the Corporation of London was highlighted as critical in allowing the ring of steel to be established and in putting pressure on the Government to set up a terrorism insurance scheme. As such, during the 1990s the Corporation of London became the principal driving force behind defending the City from both the physical and financial risk of terrorism. Previous chapters have also noted how the Corporation attempted to re-articulate their response to terrorist risk in terms of crime reduction, better traffic management and environmental improvements, and how the importance of the City in the national and London-wide context, was pushed to the fore as justification for the creation of the ring of steel. This chapter will investigate these assumptions showing how the Corporations’ response to terrorism was framed, legitimated and negotiated as a result of institutional alliances between themselves and other key urban managers and political authorities, creating a powerful pro-security ‘inside’ discourse.
