241 Alberto Bueno The Culture of Security and Defence: A Proposal for... Delimitation of the culture of security and defence: its separation from awareness of defence Another term has been used at the same time as culture is the term awareness, which has not been outlined in such a clear-cut and constant way as the former. In order to understand and address this term it is essential to realise that awareness has a far more subjective component, driven by personal reflection -ergo private and exclusive to that individual- based on the affiliations and knowledge facilitated by culture. We consider that, whilst culture is based on the characteristics described in the previous section, awareness corresponds to the understanding of the importance of defence policy for the well-being of society. Awareness would thus be the ultimate aim of the culture of security and defence as it indicates the acquiescence of a population for the missions of the armed forces designed by a particular government. Apropos the awareness of defence, the philosopher José Antonio Marina32 discussed the matter, presenting two useful definitions for the sake of better understanding: firstly, that awareness was equivalent to “moral conscience”, that is to say, the civic awareness of duties, responsibilities and the means to fulfil these; secondly, it would be seen as’realising something’, i.e., and according to the philosopher himself, becoming aware of the importance, difficulties and complexities that the security and defence of a nation entails. Similar definitions can also be seen in the work of Tamarit33, who believes awareness to be both perception and acceptance on the part of citizens of the specific action taken to protect the common values and interests identified by the government. The latter sense of this term as conveyed by Marina is the one that we believe to be most fitting to the lines of reasoning of this paper: awareness of defence develops by means of open reflection about the knowledge, information etc. provided by the culture of security and defence, which enables citizens to perceive these issues as im-portant and then, if so, for them to accept and support the lines of action taken and the way in which these are implemented. Nonetheless, and by way of counter-argu-ment to Tamarit, we must be aware that this exercise in reflection, if one accepts its importance, may also lead to the rejection of the decisions made by public officials. Nevertheless, in practice interpretations interweave both concepts, opting for a meaning along the lines of ’moral conscience’and situating this in terms of other values 32 MARINA, José Antonio, «Pegagogía de la cultura de la seguridad en la enseñanza no universitar-ia » in La Cultura de seguridad y defensa. Un proyecto en marcha, Madrid, Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies, Strategy Paper 155, 2011, p. 68. 33 TAMARIT, Joaquín, «La seguridad y la defensa de la sociedad española» in LÓPEZ MORA, F. and BALLESTEROS, M.A. (eds.) Ensayos sobre la cultura de defensa y la paz en la España actual, Cordoba-Madrid, University of Cordoba-General Directorate-General of Defence Institutional Re-lations, http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 2011, p. 321.
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