Surveillance and security have historically served as means by which to cope with the complexities of the Olympics and the uncertainties these generate. Based on empirically grounded analysis of fifteen Olympics starting with Tokyo 1964 and through London 2012, contributed by leading international researchers, the book develops the notion of security meta-ritual. This is a meta-level of framing which enables the organization and communication of security as the adjustable sieve that uses surveillance to select what is permitted to enter the world of Olympic spectacle. In this way, it creates highly controlled conditions under which the Olympics can be performed as planned and without disruption.

PART I: PROLOGUE Prologue. Olympic Surveillance as a Prelude to Securitization; Don Handelman.- PART II: INTRODUCTION 1. The Olympic Games as Complex Planned Event: Between Uncertainty and Order Through Security Meta-Ritual; Vida Bajc 2. On Security and Surveillance in the Olympics: A View from Inside the Tent; Richard Pound.- PART III: CASE STUDIES 3. Modernity and the Carnivalesque (Tokyo 1964); Christian Tagsold 4. Repression of Protest and the Image of Progress (Mexico City 1968); Kevin B. Witherspoon 5. Fear of Radical Movements and Policing the Enemy Within (Sapporo 1972); Kiyoshi Abe 6. "The Most Beautiful Olympic Games that Were Ever Destroyed" (Munich 1972); Jørn Hansen 7. "The Army's Presence Will Be Obvious" (Montreal 1976); Bruce Kidd 8. "To Guarantee Security and Protect Social Order" (Moscow 1980); Carol Marmor-Drews 9. Cross-National Intelligence Cooperation and Centralized Security Control System (Seoul 1988); Gwang Ok and Kyoung Ho Park 10. Platform for Local Political Expression and Resolution (Barcelona 1992); Stephen Essex 11. Audience-Spectator-Performer Interactions (Lillehammer 1994); Ingrid Rudie 12. National Special Security Event (Salt Lake City 2002); Sean P. Varano, George Burruss, Jr. and Scott H. Decker 13. Asymmetric Power Relations (Athens 2004); Anastassia Tsoukala 14. The Spatialities of Security and Control (Turin 2006); Alberto Vanolo 15. People's Olympics? (Beijing 2008); Gladys Pak Lei Chong, Jeroen de Kloet and Zeng Guohua 16. Promoting 'Civility', Excluding the Poor (Vancouver 2010); Jacqueline Kennelly 17. Public-Private Global Security Assemblages (London 2012); Joseph R. Bongiovi.