A critical moment that brings a particular policy issue to the front. Part of the problem stream in Kingdon's [[Multiple Streams Framework]]. Typical characteristics - Occur suddenly - Happen rarely - Large in scale - Policy makers and the public find out about it at the same time Examples - 9/11 - al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes hitting the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. ~3000 people killed and broadcast live to a global audience - USA PATRIOT Act signed 6 weeks after - TSA created, Department of Homeland Security created, War in Afghanistan and Iraq - Policy windows this wide can get existing, related proposals attached and passed, whether they address the problem or not - Pearl Harbor - Surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 2400 killed - Flipped support for entering WW2 - Fukushima - Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused reactor meltdowns in Fukushima nuclear plant - 1000 killed by tsunami. No (immediate) deaths from the nuclear accident. - Hugely varied results across the world - Germany, who had anti-nuclear movements since 1970s, phased out nuclear completely. - 2008 financial crisis - Collapse of the U.S. housing bubble. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Household wealth fell 17% - Basel III and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act: New banking rules - TARP ($700b emergency fund) and ARRA ($800b government spending package) Lessons - Solutions precede problems. The existing policy landscape and proposals prime the reaction to focusing events - Framing determines response size - Overreach is common. Policy usually does more than what the event would justify [^1] [^1]: https://www.atlas101.ca/pm/concepts/focusing-event/