Introduction

Abstract

The ambitious and normative expansion of the remit of “security” as both policy and practice risks being as difficult to focus and prioritize as to implement. In Southeast Asia, threats and impediments to “human security” are part of the daily lived experiences of large numbers of people. They live in vulnerable and precarious circumstances (“human insecurities”) that are largely beyond their immediate control. Yet, this is not a set of “insecurities” that is readily understood or measurable. There is a complex nexus of interrelated conditioning factors and interests underlying them. The following volume attempts to address the latter problem by giving voice to a broad spectrum of views and diversity of experiences which in turn articulates the varying consequences of “human insecurities” particular to Southeast Asia. By contextualizing “human insecurities” and locating them conceptually within relationships of risk, uncertainty, safety and trust, the volume’s contributions bring grounded but critical reflection on the ways in which we approach the study of “human insecurities” in Southeast Asia and how some of these might be ameliorated.