Human Security: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Abstract

[This article outlines the origins of »human security« as a concept stemming from the policy-making community. By advocating a narrow vision of human security revolving around the notion of »freedom from fear« – a perspective emphasizing that human development cannot be advanced without attention to basic security needs – the article asserts that the use of the concept of human security by states and decision-makers is not merely a trivial matter of labelling. Rather, it leads states and policy-makers to focus on different issues, to ask different questions, and even to promote different policies, developments that have a significant impact in shaping at least some parts of the international security agenda for the 21st century.]