Hi there,
in this video we will briefly discuss the results of the crowdsourcing exercise.
In this exercise, we asked you to indicate the most important safety and
security issues in your home country.
A selection of your answers will be discussed in this video.
Your answers shed light on two things.
First, they provide us with an overall view of current and
pressing security issues around the world.
And second, they allow us to explore what kind of issues are considered a security
measure by people living in different countries and different cultures.
So let's have a look.
What do safety and security mean to you?
The crowdsourcing exercise demonstrated
that many of you mentioned issues in the societal sphere.
Issues belonging to this category range from over population and
social inequality to riots, disturbing public order, and terrorist attacks.
Also shortage of clean water and
contagious diseases can threaten stability and security of societies.
For example, dangerous viruses may wipe out large numbers of people, and
create social and economic unrest.
To make matters worse in a globalized world, contagious diseases may spread
easily, reaching all corners of the world in no time.
Besides societal issues you also mentioned issues in the geopolitical sphere
as the most important security issue in your home country.
Here we find for example interstate conflicts, failure of the rule of law, and
conflicts over weapons of mass destruction.
Examples of geopolitical security issues unfortunately abound.
Currently, there are different conflicts between states in
various regions of the world.
Moreover, there are multiple countries with unstable regimes and
civil wars can be the result thereof.
Alternatively, at times of military coup or other violent regime changes may arise.
The crowdsourcing exercise also indicated technological issues.
These usually concern a breakdown of critical infrastructures and
networks vital for safety and security.
Critical infrastructures are basically crucial facilities for
the functioning of societies, governments, and companies.
Think of transportation and telecommunication facilities for example.
These days, critical infrastructures are increasingly managed or
operated using digital technologies.
This means that these critical infrastructures now have
vulnerabilities that digital technologies have.
They can be hacked and attacked through digital means.
For example, hackers could open a dam to flood a large area of land or
they could shut down the power grid with the push of a button.
As a result, cyber security has become an increasingly urgent topic.
Aside from threats to critical infrastructures, it also involves the risk
of data identity, data theft, cyberterrorism and cyberespionage.
You also mentioned environmental issues,
as important security issues in your home country.
This category can be roughly divided into natural disasters and extreme weather
events on the one hand and man-made environmental disaster on the other.
Examples of natural disasters are hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and
tsunamis.
Pollution of land, water, or
air by industrial waste we consider a man-made environmental issue.
Last but certainly not the least, you listed economic issues.
These include poverty, large differences in social and economic status and
malfunctioning of financial systems and institutions.
A real life example of an economic security issue is the financial crisis
at the beginning of the 21st century.
This category also includes various forms of illicit trade,
such as money laundering, tax fraud, and the financing of organized crime.
All right, all examples I just mentioned are just a selection of your answers.
The complete and overall findings of the crowdsourcing exercise
will be mapped on the course page soon.
For now, we conclude that safety and security stand for
a wide variety of issues.
In other words, the concepts of safety and
security have a different meaning to people all over the world.
This we will further unravel throughout this course.
We hope to have sparked your interest about safety and security, and
we invite you to introduce yourself to other participant on our online forum.
We will see you back next module when we further explore the fascinating world of
security studies.