Is national security still national security? : A theory-testing case study of Ulrich Beck's World Risk Society's assumption about the terror risk.

The purpose of this thesis is to test the credibility of Ulrich Becks World risk society theory’s theoretical assumptions about global terrorism's and the terrorist threat’s impact on the nation state’s security policy. To reach an answer a case study with a theory-testing method has been used to test the credibility of the theory. The theory has been tested on the security policy and actions in the US after the 9/11 terror attacks 2001. The thesis can conclude that Ulrich Beck's assumption and hypotheses about the terrorist threat and that it has undermined the traditional forms of security policy and encroached on states opportunities to combat national threats through unilateral acts, have shown different degrees of influence on US security policy since 9/11 2001 up to and including 2016. Overall, Ulrich Beck's WRS theory assumptions that the terrorist threat undermines the nation state's possibilities for individual national security policy can be validated by specific elements but weakened by others