ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the broader national and international contours of the 2012 security strategy and its constituent parts, and considers the central themes of Olympic security, securing the physical environment. The Olympic Security Strategy (OSS) rightly assesses the most severe threat to the Games to be terrorism, and much of the strategy focuses on the management of this risk. Importantly, in putting security measures in place, care must be taken not to compromise spectator safety. The conceptual privileging of counter-terrorism is also translated into the structural organization of 2012 security. Since the 1970s security planning has become an integral and required part of bidding documents and preparation for hosting sporting mega-events, most notably the Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. In conclusion, for sporting mega-events the threat from international terrorism is spatially imprinted in total security' assemblages that are simultaneously standardized, transferable and mobile, and thus risk being dissociated from their host environments.
