HUMAN SECURITY

Human Security

Human Security

Human Security

The traditional goal of 'national security' has been the defense of the state from external threats. The focus of human security, by contrast, is the protection of individuals. Human security is a relatively new concept, now widely used to describe the complex of interrelated threats associated with civil war, genocide and the displacement of populations. Human security and national security should be and often are—mutually reinforcing. But secure states do not automatically mean secure peoples. Protecting citizens from foreign attack may be a necessary condition for the security of individuals, but it is certainly not a sufficient one. Indeed, during the last 100 years far more people have been killed by their own governments than by foreign armies (Nissanke, 2007 56)

Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability. All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals(Nissanke, 2007 56). However, consensus breaks down over precisely what threats individuals should be protected from. Proponents of the 'narrow' concept of human security focus on violent threats to individuals or the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence (Stephen, 2005 211).

The broader view of human security has many adherents—and it is easy to see why. Few would dispute the desirability of protecting people from malnutrition, disease and natural disasters as well as from violence (Buzan, 1991 23). Moreover there is considerable evidence to suggest that all of these societal threats are interrelated in the mostly poor countries in which they are concentrated. Scholarly debate is a normal part of the evolution of new concepts, but it is of little interest to policy-makers. The policy community is, however, increasingly using the concept of human security because it speaks to the interrelatedness of security, development and the protection of civilians (Lechner, Boli, 2003 34).

Importance of human Security

Human security is an emerging school of thought about the practice of international security. Human security offers a critique of, and advocates for an alternative to, the traditional state-based conception of security(Aart, 2000 3). Essentially, it argues that the proper referent for security is the individual and that state practices should reflect this rather than primarily focusing on securing borders through unilateral military action (Buzan, 1991 24). The justification for the human security approach is said to be that the traditional conception of security is no longer appropriate or effective in the highly interconnected and interdependent modern world in which global threats such as poverty, environmental degradation, and terrorism supersede the traditional security threats of interstate attack and warfare. Further, state-interest-based arguments for human security propose that the international system is too interconnected for the state to maintain an isolationist international policy. Therefore, it argues that a state can best maintain its security and the ...