Compare and contrasts the effect of terrorism on global events Dissertation

Compare and contrasts the effect of terrorism on global events - Dissertation Example Secondary research method was more appropriate because it provided sufficient historical data for comparison purposes. The hosting of the global event in these two cities corresponds to two critical periods in the history of terrorism. During the hosting of Olympic Games in Barcelona, there had been no major terror attack on global events for two decades, since 1972 attacks in Munich Olympic Games. However, prior to the hosting of Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, terrorists had bombed similar global event in Atlanta, United States in 1996. One year after Sidney hosted the games, September 11 terror attacks in New York occurred. 5. Discussions and research findings Global events are important components of tourism, an industry that is very vulnerable to terrorism and insecurity. Currently tourism is one of the most important economic activities in the world besides telecommunication and information technology. The importance of hosting global events is evidenced by the stiff competiti on the many countries wishing to host events face to secure the hosting rights. Some of the most popular global events include the Olympics and FIFA world cup among others. The large audience that the global events attract make them susceptible to various threats, including violence from the fans, terrorism and natural disasters. From the 1990s, terrorism has been the one of the major concerns for the events organizers and the sports managers. The 1972 terror attacks that targeted Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics and the pipe bomb that exploded in1996 during summer Olympics in Atlanta are just of some of the few attacks targeting global events. Since then, other global events have been targeted by terrorism including International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments in Asia, especially in Pakistan, UEFA champions league matches in Barcelona and the recent attacks in Kampala Uganda that targeted fans watching the finals of 2010 world cup finals in South Africa (Clark and Sophia 2008). Several research studies have been undertaken to investigate terrorism on global events, and one of the common findings is the insufficiency of security personnel training at venues in relation to those guarding against terror attacks. However, Appelbaum, et al (2005), argued that the unpredictable nature of terrorism and the conduct of attending fans present formidable difficulties in ensuring a secure environment at the venues. Therefore, it is imperative to enforce appropriate preparations, response and recovery measures to mitigate the effects of terrorism to the global events. There are various definitions of terrorism and Christopher (2000, p 52) defines it as â€Å"the illegal use of force or violence against people or property to threaten or coerce a government, the civilian population or any targeted sector in advancement of political or social objectives†. Terror attacks targeting global events and other civilian installations are normally well planned and or ganized. According to Christopher (2000), the objectives of terror attacks targeting areas with large number of people such as global events include inflicting the greatest amount of humiliation to the target and securing maximum publicity of the terrorist cause to the largest number of people in the world as possible. Moreover, terrorists who successfully launch attacks on the targeted areas mainly intend to gain credit or respect, compel the targeted population into agreement with