Human Security

Human security and universal health coverage: Japan's vision for the G7 Hiroshima Summit

Human security suggests that security policy and security analysis, if they are to be effective and legitimate, must focus on the individual as the referent and primary beneficiary. In broad terms, human security is “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear:” positive and negative rights as they relate to threats to core individual needs. Human security is normative; it argues that there is an ethical responsibility to (re)orient security around the individual in line with internationally recognized standards of human rights and governance. Much human security scholarship is therefore explicitly or implicitly underpinned by a solidarist commitment to moral obligation, and some are cosmopolitan in ethical orientation. However, there is no uncontested definition of, or approach to, human security, though theorists generally start with human security challenges to orthodox neorealist conceptions of international security. Nontraditional and critical security studies (which are distinct from human security scholarship) also challenges the neorealist orthodoxy as a starting point, although generally from a more sophisticated theoretical standpoint than found in the human security literature. Critical security studies can be conceived broadly to embrace a number of different nontraditional approaches which challenge conventional (military, state-centric) approaches to security studies and security policy. Human security has generally not been treated seriously within these academic security studies debates, and it has not contributed much either.

Strong (green) institutions in weak states: Environmental governance and human (in)security in the Global South

Background: The concept of human security has fundamentally reoriented security studies away from territorial defense toward the protection of individuals from persistent, non-traditional threats. In the 21st century, India faces a dense and interlocking array of such threats, including economic precarity, health system fragility, educational degradation, gendered vulnerability, and institutional governance deficits. Despite sustained policy expansion and democratic legitimacy, human security outcomes remain uneven, revealing deep structural constraints. Objective: This paper critically examines India’s human security landscape by analyzing how non-traditional threats are generated, mediated, and reproduced through governance arrangements, institutional capacity, and policy design. It advances the argument that India’s human security challenges stem less from resource scarcity and more from fragmented, compliance-oriented governance that insufficiently centers human well-being, trust, and institutional ethics. Methods: The study adopts a qualitative, analytical approach grounded in political economy and public policy analysis. It synthesizes human security theory with sectoral evidence drawn from education, labour, public health, and gender-focused policy domains. The analysis integrates insights from empirical and conceptual scholarship on governance, institutional climate, professional well-being, and policy implementation in the Indian context. Results: The analysis indicates that non-traditional security threats in India are not isolated or sporadic; rather, they are structurally integrated and mutually reinforcing. Educational stress, occupational insecurity, gendered labour vulnerability, and declining organisational trust emerge as critical yet under-theorised dimensions of human security. Governance cultures, leadership practices, and institutional value systems play a decisive role in shaping these outcomes, frequently intensifying vulnerability rather than mitigating it. While digital governance and emerging technologies offer significant potential to enhance service delivery and inclusion, they also risk reproducing exclusion and surveillance-driven control in the absence of ethical, human-centric frameworks. Conclusion: Reframing human security in India requires a decisive shift from state-centric control paradigms toward governance models rooted in institutional ethics, professional well-being, and social trust. Human security must be treated as a foundational outcome of governance rather than a residual policy concern. This paper enhances security studies and public policy scholarship by emphasising the institutional and governance factors that contribute to insecurity, while also providing a comprehensive framework for promoting human security in expansive, heterogeneous democracies.

Every time we hear the expression ‘peace in our world’, it naturally conjures the absence of warfare and internal disorder, and the end of military or other hostilities. Throughout history, innumerable human beings have suffered from the scourge of conflict. Quite naturally they tried, often at significant costs, to protect themselves with assorted resources against all major threats to their (human) security. The human security concept continues to loom large in global policy and peace discourse notwithstanding growing doubts about the ‘effectiveness’ of its promise in a highly vulnerable modern society overloaded with weapons of mass-destruction amid other threats to peace. The bottom-line is the imperative of replacing the dominant thoughts about securing peace. This paper accentuates the theory of peace and its relationship to the concept of human security. It takes its point of departure from the theoretical framework of critical security studies (CSS) and argues that there is a specific sense in which CSS needs to comprehend peace, and that this understanding is closely affiliated with human security. The paper is arguably a theoretical exploration of the concepts of peace and security. It is not, therefore, an empirical examination of where or when there is peace or how to obtain it. It is important to emphasize that this is not a paper that answers the question ‘what is peace?’ Although a proposal of how CSS theorists should contemplate peace is made, the main aim is the theoretical relationship between peace and human security and the theoretical and possible practical gains achieved by a clarification of this relationship.

The ambiguity of the agreements made in situations of war between parties with differing interests, power bases and incentives to act is crucial political territory. Tracing the dynamics by which negotiations take place between aid providers and parties to the conflict and lead to particular outcomes is central to an improved understanding of the processes of aid. The articles presented in this Special Issue are brought together to examine and illuminate the ways in which the agendas and agreements promoted in countries in which there is violent conflict are pursued with various degrees of success or are subject to contestation, renegotiation, reneging and radical reinterpretation.

International Security Studies (ISS) grew out of debates over how to protect the state against external and internal threats after the Second World War. Security became its watchword (Wolfers, 1952; Yergin, 1978), both distinguishing ISS from earlier thinking and the disciplines of War Studies and Military History, and, as it evolved, serving as the linking concept connecting an increasingly diverse set of research programmes. Looking back on more than sixty years of academic writing on international security, the first pertinent question for an intellectual history of ISS is to define what makes up the sub-field and where the boundary zones between it and adjacent academic disciplines are located.

Analyzes the common features of various versions of the theory of the security of the individual and society (human security), the possible consequences of its practical implementation. Highlights the evolution of traditional approaches to the study of international security; it examines the basic tenets and conclusions of the theory of the security of the individual and society; the consequences of their practical application . The concept of human security contains this basic postulate: the radical expansion of the field of security and the displacement of this field of the state as Central actor for the formation of a cosmopolitan universal, politico-moral community safety. Draws attention to the need to go beyond the traditional, military-strategic understanding of security, the disclosure of multidimensionality and depth of the issues involved. Key words : safety; «human security»; human security and society; the concept of human security.

The ongoing Syrian conflict has resulted in millions of refugees fleeing the country since 2011. In 2015, the Malaysian government pledged to host 3000 Syrian refugees to continue their lives safely in Malaysia before returning to Syria when the war ends. However, Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, which serves as an international treaty that recognises refugees’ status and protects their rights. Due to the non-existence of a legal framework to protect refugees and externally displaced persons, this article argues that human security threats are very likely to be faced by Syrian refugees in Malaysia, despite the implementation of the Syrian Migrant Temporary Settlement Program (PPSMS) by the Malaysian government. Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with selected government officials, Syrian refugees and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the analysis in this article revealed that there are major security concerns that have impacted existing Syrian refugees in Malaysia, which can be viewed from different interdependent human security dimensions, such as political, economic, health and social security.

This book examines how national security strategies relate to an emerging common European or global vision of security, and to human security ideas. Human security and national security are often regarded as competing and mutually antagonistic; the former was proposed and has been operationalised in ways which represent a paradigm shift away from state-centric approaches and the dominance of national-security perspectives. This has led to human security being associated with a broadening of the security agenda to encompass not only physical security, the use of force and military capabilities, but also the provision of material well-being and dignity to vulnerable communities. This edited volume seeks to identify key concepts and themes in the national discourse of several European countries, addressing security at a meta-narrative and conceptual level, illustrating the changes taking place in approaches to security, and in particular, mapping moves away from a paradigm of ‘national security’ to one which might be called ‘human security’. It also enables an assessment of whether national security is currently converging at either European or global levels. This book will be of much interest to students of human security, European politics, discourse analysis, war and conflict studies, and IR/security studies in general.


 
 
 Human security has recently emerged as a global issue that requires international cooperation. Moreso, the concepts of political harmony and rule of law have also become a common agenda at many international conferences. Human insecurity in Zimbabwe can be dated back to its colonial past. The colonisation of Zimbabwe by Britain was widely viewed as an attempt by colonisers to introduce a type of monocracy. That marked the initial obstruction to human security for the indigenous people and general lack of cohesion amongst social groups. Currently, Zimbabwe is facing socio-economic challenges which are embedded in the political environment linked to its isolation from the international community through imposition of sanctions for top politicians. The overall objective of this research was to assess philosophical perspectives on the current political situation and rule of law in Zimbabwe and their implications on human security. The research sought to identify the political leadership challenges in addressing human security concerns. To achieve these research objectives, an interdisciplinary approach was used. The methodology for this paper was based on hermeneutics and philosophical analytical models. Results have shown that there is generally an unstable political environment marred with inherent tension due to lack of political harmony and selective application of the law. This paper recommends the need for leadership renewal besides the ideological renewal alongside dialogue and national consensus. Furthermore, the adoption of global village concept emphasizing on democratic principles and political integration could be a possible panacea in addressing the current challenges and ensure human security.
 
 
 

Security in International Relations has undergone profound changes since the end of the Cold War. After the end of bipolarism the system of International Relations has experienced three main variations concerning structure, provision and perception of security. First of all, the international arena must deal with the consequences of the progressive decline of sovereignty and the shifting from a statocetric to a multicentric model of global relations; secondly, non-state actors are emerging as brand-new providers of security in many parts of the world; finally, new representations of security are shaping the social perception of “safety” pointing out the needs to give certainty and protection to single, weak persons (and not only to the majority of a population) as the real target for collective international security produced by responsible states (Human Security and Responsibility to Protect doctrines).

In a global pandemic, it is commonplace to look toward global solutions for global issues. But the pandemic has highlighted how states cannot unilaterally counter complex threats that cross borders unseen. One lesson from the current COVID-19 pandemic is that states must cooperate not just amongst themselves but also with a broad range of non-state actors to better realise human rights, particularly the right to health. But the state-based international system is not geared toward such relationships where the key voices in international organisations, for example, are states. Top-down decision making by the international community can fail to consider the lived experiences of individuals and reduce our humanity. How then can the international community ensure local involvement in decision-making on human rights, and “new” human rights in particular, such as the right to health, that affect peoples’ daily lives in a multitude of ways? This post looks at how the non-legal concept of ‘human security’, coined by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), can be used to encourage the empowerment of the local to inform and contribute to decision-making in relation to human rights. Human security can help reshape the international system to prioritise the empowerment of individuals and groups to have ownership of their rights and contextualise action on “new” human rights.

Human security is a concept that challenges the traditional notion of national security by placing the ‘human’ as the central referent of security instead of the 'state.’ It is a concept that encompasses health and well-being of people and prioritizes their fundamental freedoms and basic livelihoods by shielding them from acute socioeconomic threats, vulnerabilities and stress. The epicenter of “health security” is located at the intersection of several academic fields or disciplines which do not necessarily share a common theoretical approach. Diverse players in the “health security” domain include practitioners in such fields as security studies, foreign policy, international relations, development theory, environmental politics and the practices of the United Nations system and other multilateral bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Improvements in health are not only dependent on continued commitments to enhance the availability of healthcare and to strengthen disease prevention systems; they are very much enhanced by that intersection between global security and global health. What is emerging is global health diplomacy paradigm that calls for strengthening of core capacities in the public health and foreign policy arenas aimed at advancing human security through the strengthening of global health diplomacy practices. Human security in its broadest sense embraces far more than the absence of violence and conflict. It encompasses human rights, good governance, access to education and health care, and ensuring that each individual has opportunities and devices to fulfill his or her potential. Every step in this direction is a step towards reducing poverty, achieving growth and preventing conflict. Freedom from want, freedom from fear and the freedom of future generations to inherit a natural environment – these are the interrelated building blocks of human- and therefore national security.

This book provides innovative thinking from a variety of perspectives on the important human rights, human security, and national security policy issues of today—and how these issues intersect. The issue of human security comes into play in nearly every important policy debate in global politics, and the protection of human rights is now recognized as one of the main functions of any legitimate modern state. How can the international community best ensure that human rights are protected while simultaneously protecting state security? Who should intervene in cases of mass, gross violations, and when are military actions justified? This book seeks to address and explore these difficult and pressing questions by presenting the differing views of commentators from various ends of the spectrum. Human Rights, Human Security, and State Security: The Intersectionconsists of three volumes, with each focusing primarily on one of the three broad areas while also drawing connections between them. A powerful resource for policy makers and practitioners in national governments, members of international organizations, and scholars, the innovative thinking presented will give readers a deepened understanding of the various international issues and help them to formulate effective policies in today's complex international landscape.