Aviation security frameworks and contemporary challenges

¶ … U.S. government has reacted to aviation security threats. List and expand on the various regulations and policies developed to improve security.

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States government has reshaped its approach to aviation security, through the development and implementation of numerous policies. The core element of the new policies has been constituted by the integration of more cutting edge technologies within airport security. The actual efforts in this sense are countless, and to name but a few, one could refer to the new screening techniques, the face recognition software applications or the improved air and safety capacity of the airplane cabins.

The technological innovations brought about a new series of challenges, generally pegged to the necessity of understanding and effectively operating the new technological applications. This translated into the introduction of training programs within airports, to ensure that the employees were able to operate the applications and gadgets to spot potential threats to national security.

New measures were also taken relative to the people entering the country. In this order of ideas, the documents of all foreigners entering the United States territory were thoroughly analyzed. Visas became more difficult to acquire.

Nevertheless, this approach has had a yet unquantifiable negative impact on the American society as a whole. The reduction of the number of people entering the U.S., including foreign students, tourists and so on, materialized in a reduced demand for national products, materializing in loses for the economic agents, which consequently paid less taxes and generated lower federal budgets. Additionally, these foreign students could have turned out to be great researchers that would have found solutions to numerous social problems.

All in all, the government has followed a triple agenda in reducing the threat of aviation security -- training, technologies and people entering the country. Each is characterized by both advantages as well as disadvantages.

Question #2: Describe the evolution of aviation security threats. List several types of threats and specific events that illustrate the damage of such threats.

Through history, the threat upon the security of airline traffic has generally been reduced. Wars and conflicts would generally be handled in open attack and without the implication and loss of civil lives. Airlines were considered the safest means of transportation.

However, with the emergence of terrorism at a global scale, wars are no longer disputed openly, but adversaries seek for ways in which to inflict as much loss as possible for the other side, with the minimum casualties on their side. The direct result was that of a demise of the airline industry, including the individual reticence to fly, materialized in the bankruptcy of several airline operators.

In more recent years, the safety of the operators and passengers within the airline industry has been impacted by the personal desires of desperate or unstable individuals. In some instances, armed or otherwise dangerous individuals were able to attack in airports or even in airplanes and cause losses of lives, materials and money.