Claire Doyle - Blog Post 2

Defining security in the 21st century is a lot more difficult than it seems. After writing about the aspect of security within the 21st century in my first analytical paper, I have been thinking about what security means to me.

Throughout each day, I am starting to realize things that make me feel secure: sometimes they are small and random, like my mom calling me once a day, making me sure that she is safe, secure and healthy, and sometimes they are common things like being able to lock my door at night knowing that someone can’t break in, or my car door automatically locking after I shut the door.

Krebs and Lobasz published Security Studies, a work on 9/11, the feeling of security post tragedy, and how to combat terrorism within the United States. The terrorist attack occurring on September 11, 2001 was a defining shift within the definition of security. This traumatic time brought out a new side of the United States.

Similar to this, the unknowing pandemic seemingly created a multitude of mental health issues. People were terrified and didn’t ever know what was going on, or what was going to happen next.

These two very different, but traumatic, events both changed the feeling of security. On one hand, post 9/11 the United States took immediate action within airports and work buildings to make sure they could protect themselves from something that prior to the attack, may have been seen as inevitable. On the other, the pandemic created a sense of security for some, as we were bounded to the limitations of our own home, but destroyed a sense of security for others, as we were in a constant state of the unknown.

I recently read an article called the Importance of Feeling Safe. This reading discussed how many people have a constant notion of anxiousness running through their blood, and how most of us really don’t know what it really feels like to be safe.

Security is a complex topic that, hopefully, one can understand at one point or another, but is never a constant or long-lasting. The little things in life, like when you’re a baby and your mom promises she will protect you from anything, seem like a perfect example of feeling secure, but when you grow up, you come to realize a lot of the things that happen in life are out of your mom's control.

Comments

  1. Keri GilliganOctober 15, 2021 at 2:25 PM

    I really liked our blog post and how you made such a broad idea that could be applied to national security down to something very personal. I too see these small acts of things that make me feel secure that I am experiencing day-to-day versus something on a larger scale that might be affecting me indirectly. I also like the point you brought up about the pandemic and how it has contributed to the lack of security. I am curious to see what more scholars are saying about security in terms of health, especially something like the COVID-19 pandemic, and what steps can be taken to regain security in this area.

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