National Security?

National security has become an all-encompassing term. Anything can be a security issue as long as an individual words it correctly. Currently the government can spin anything into being a national security issue, there is a broadness to the term because of all the different kinds of threats which exist today. However, this use of the word national security has become too general. There needs to be some parameters when justifying something as a national security threat. Now I am not sure how that would look or what they would be, but having a framework for defining national security would increase transparency within the government as well as give them more authority. There is also the issue of being threatened vs creating a threat even if there was not a serious one before. In NSC 68 the Soviet Union was deemed the highest threat during this time period and all developments were being done to hopefully beat the Russians. But really was communism a threat before we, the United States, mobilized against them and spread narratives that the USSR was bad. Our use of the term “national security threat” intensified the issue. From there, not only did it affect our international allies and relations, it also affected processes on a domestic level with the red scare and McCarthyism. “National security” was used in a way to control the citizens of the United States to ensure cooperation and homogeneity. National security is held in such a high regard within the United States, we place a lot of importance into the term and if it is used in an argument or for a justification people usually comply and respect it. Our military plays a huge role in our national security and it is evident that the respect we have for them also plays into our preconceived notion that national security is always beneficial. The world is changing so much, national security includes so many topics and is growing as we are exploring more of the technology world. Besides the military which is a physical representation of national security there are also intangible items which fall under national security such as cyber security, climate change and financial security. In the 2006 Security documents Global Economic Growth is listed as something which needs to be a priority for US national Security. This intangible topic of financial security has become a headline priority, financial stability is important, but can it or should it qualify as an issue of national security? Is it really that threatening? There are issues which the United States places too much of an emphasis on. Intangible security threats are real especially in the form of cyber security or climate change and today’s world intangible threats are becoming more of a focus for national security since they are more prominent. National security should not be all encompassing or taken lightly, it is a term which not only aims to preserve our borders and sovereignty but also the protection of our core values. But at what point do we distinguish between threat and the creation of one due to fear or the need to have a firmer control over the citizenry.