Between fear and ignorance: explaining young citizens’ perceptions about national security in terms of external threats

In the last decades the issue of national security has become more transparent and a subject of interest for the common citizen. Much scholarly attention is paid to how people perceive national security and issues related to it. However, we know very little about what young citizens, members of generation Z, believe about this matter. The paper addresses this gap in the literature and analyzes how young citizens perceive the current external threats to national security. It uses Romania as a single-case study and semi-structured interviews conducted between January and March 2022 with young citizens coming from different socio-demographic groups. The main purpose is to explain the perceptions variation related to external threats to national security in the context of the current crisis generated by Russian Federation. The paper seeks to test the explanatory power of several variables such as knowledge about contemporary events, media exposure and threat assessment. The paper also controls for several socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education and medium of residence. The findings indicate that citizens’ perceptions are influenced by a combination of general attitudes towards the political system and society, education and specific attitudes about potential external threats.