Human security refers in its broadest sense to the protection of individuals from harm. Human Security: Theory and Action explores the theory and application of concepts central to this notion of security. It examines the conceptual roots of human security, connecting its origins to its applications and challenges in war and peacetime. With a unique focus on the evolving notion of responsibility for security, the text introduces the critical questions and priorities that underpin policies and actions. The text is organized around four sections. The introduction offers an overview of human security and its basic tenets and historical foundations. The second section focuses on human security in armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, discussing such issues as the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, racial inequality, peacekeeping and peace negotiation processes, and humanitarian assistance. The third section identifies the long-term issues that are necessary for a durable human security, including human rights, food security, poverty, gender equality, health security, and environmental sustainability. The final section applies the concepts introduced in the book to twenty-first century concerns and offers insights on turning theory into action. Integrated into the text are many case studies to broaden the student’s awareness beyond the conflicts and issues that dominate the media. By balancing theoretical explanations with concrete illustrative cases, both historical and contemporary, the text provides intellectually challenging and intrinsically interesting material and offers a unique, comprehensive introduction human security in war and peace. The second edition of Human Security: Theory and Action examines the conceptual roots of human security, connecting its origins to its application in a time of conflict, inequality, environmental stress, and the aftermath of a global pandemic.

A hard-headed analysis of the role of the UN in translating ideas about human security from theory into practice.

This Handbook will serve as a standard reference guide to the subject of human security, which has grown greatly in importance over the past twenty years. Human security has been part of academic and policy discourses since it was first promoted by the UNDP in its 1994 Human Development Report. Filling a clear gap in the current literature, this volume brings together some of the key scholars and policy-makers who have contributed to its emergence as a mainstream concept, including Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen and Sadako Ogata, who jointly chaired the 2001 Commission on Human Security. Drawing upon a range of theoretical and empirical analyses, the Handbook provides examples of the use of human security in policies as diverse as disaster management, arms control and counter-terrorism, and in different geographic and institutional settings from Asia to Africa, and the UN. It also raises important questions about how the concept might be adapted and operationalised in future. Over the course of the book, the authors draw on three key aspects of human security thinking: Theoretical issues to do with defining human security as a specific discourse Human security from a policy and institutional perspective, and how it is operationalised in different policy and geographic contexts Case studies and empirical work Featuring some of the leading scholars in the field, the Routledge Handbook of Human Security will be essential reading for all students of human security, critical security, conflict and development, peace and conflict studies, and of great interest to students of international security and IR in general.

This new book presents critical approaches towards Human Security, which has become one of the key areas for policy and academic debate within Security Studies and IR. The Human Security paradigm has had considerable significance for academics, policy-makers and practitioners. Under the rubric of Human Security, security policy practices seem to have transformed their goals and approaches, re-prioritising economic and social welfare issues that were marginal to the state-based geo-political rivalries of the Cold War era. Human Security has reflected and reinforced the reconceptualisation of international security, both broadening and deepening it, and, in so doing, it has helped extend and shape the space within which security concerns inform international policy practices. However, in its wider use, Human Security has become an amorphous and unclear political concept, seen by some as progressive and radical and by others as tainted by association with the imposition of neo-liberal practices and values on non-Western spaces or as legitimizing attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. This book is concerned with critical perspectives towards Human Security, highlighting some of the tensions which can emerge between critical perspectives which discursively radicalise Human Security within frameworks of emancipatory possibility and those which attempt to deconstruct Human Security within the framework of an externally imposed attempt to regulate and order the globe on behalf of hegemonic power. The chapters gathered in this edited collection represent a range of critical approaches which bring together alternative understandings of human security. This book will be of great interest to students of human security studies and critical security studies, war and conflict studies and international relations.

To fully understand contemporary security studies, we must move beyond the traditional focus on major national powers and big wars. Modern threats to security include issues such as globalization, climate change, pandemic diseases, endemic poverty, weak and failing states, transnational narcotics trafficking, piracy, and vulnerable information systems. Human Security in a Borderless World offers a fresh, detailed examination of these challenges that threaten human beings, their societies, and their governments today. Authors Derek S. Reveron and Kathleen A. Mahoney-Norris provide a thought-provoking exploration of civic, economic, environmental, maritime, health, and cyber security issues in this era of globalization, including thorough consideration of the policy implications for the United States. They argue that human security is now national security. This timely and engaging book is an essential text for today's courses on security studies, foreign policy, international relations, and global issues. Features include three special sections in each chapter that explain potential counterarguments about the topic under consideration; explore the policy debates that dominate the area of study; and illuminate concrete examples of security threats. Richly illustrated and accessibly written, Human Security in a Borderless World is designed to encourage critical thinking and bring the material to life for students.

Today, the number of armed conflicts worldwide has dropped, the number of refugees has declined and human rights violations are reported to be less frequent than during the 1990s. Does this mean that the world has become more peaceful? Not necessarily. It is a fact that 18 percent of the world’s population still lives on less than US$1 per day, atrocious inter-state conflicts are raging across the world, and many problems do not stop at national borders. Most conflicts have an economic dimension. It is also a fact that more and more conflicts are solved through mediation and negotiation. It is therefore important to highlight the influence of companies regarding conflict, the link between economic factors and mediation, and the role of companies in mediation processes. A stable environment is an essential requirement for business activity. Human security helps to create stability. Poverty, under-development and discrimination, on the other hand, create a breeding ground for violent conflict. The areas of activity for political actors seeking to promote human security generally, as well as promote human security through companies, are different. However, the primary goals are the same—stability and security as the prerequisites for economic success and human security. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to assume responsibility and to look for new forms of cooperation. Given the nature of today’s world order and of the existing challenges, a multi-layered cooperation approach between politics and civil society and, above all, between politics and business should be developed. Economic actors must realize that they have an influence on contemporary political events and thus have a responsibility for the creation of stability. Political actors, in turn, need to start accepting greater responsibility and acknowledge that foreign trade policy is not neutral and that they, therefore, need to find the correct balance between economic, social and ecological interests. The private sector, besides maximizing profits, can make a major contribution towards improving human security. Although the “business case” for complying with human rights and for contributing to peace promotion has been made, the connection between ethical behavior and financial performance needs to be established. Although this field has not yet been explored in sufficient depth, studies show that there is no negative correlation between company responsibility and economic performance. The choice should be clear when confronted with the question: shall we simply make profits, or shall we make profits and create additional social benefits?