The Moloch of National Security
Of all the smart recommendations Steve Walt makes in his post, “Don’t Give ISIS What It Wants,” this is the most important:
No. 2: Accept that 100 percent security is not possible.
As I’ve written before, of all the ideological Molochs that modernity has spawned—communism, fascism, liberalism, conservatism, whatever—none is as potent and enduring, none demands so much sacrifice, as the idea of security. If we’re going to get past the permanent state of emergency we seem to be in, we have to accept that 100% security is not possible. Risk is part of life. While the siren call of safety has an irresistible lure—though we should always remember that not everyone’s safety has the same lure to policymakers; security is a selective ideal, selectively implemented—we need to learn how to resist it. By which I mean we need to learn how to think politically about security, not simply give into its irrepressible demands, but meditate upon how, like all goods, it should be distributed; how much of it we need; who should pay for it, and so on.
National security is as political as Social Security; let’s think and act accordingly.
Here, if you’re interested, are just a few of the more analytical/theoretical articles I’ve written on security over the years