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Human Security

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies

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Introduction

The end of the Cold War marked a shift in the concept of security. No longer were the state and the protection of its territorial boundaries the primary focus behind the idea of security; rather a more comprehensive agenda of security that put people and human beings at the forefront arose. The concept of human security represents a departure from orthodox security studies that focus on the security of the state, namely, “national security.” The subjects of the human security approach are individuals and communities. Its end goal is the protection of people from traditional threats such as military violence and warfare and nontraditional threats such as poverty and disease. Moving the security agenda beyond state security does not mean replacing it but rather involves a complementary perspective.

Moving away from the realist and neorealist point of view, the 1994 United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report (HDR) detailed a variety of security threats to...

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Further Reading

  • Acharya, A. (2001). Human security: East versus West. International Journal, 56(3), 442–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Axworthy, L. (2001). Human security and global governance: Putting people first. Global Governance, 7(1), 19–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, H. (2005). ‘Doing’ security as though humans matter: A feminist perspective on gender and the politics of human security. Security Dialogue, 36(2), 155–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tripp, A. M., Ferree, M., & Ewig, C. (Eds.). (2013). Gender, violence, and human security: Critical feminist perspectives. New York: New York University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Ayelet Harel-Shalev & Carmit Wolberg

Authors
  1. Ayelet Harel-Shalev
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  2. Carmit Wolberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ayelet Harel-Shalev .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Alberta, AB, Canada

    Scott Romaniuk

  2. University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica

    Manish Thapa

  3. Nemzetkozi Tanulmanyok Intezet, Rm 503, Corvinus Univ, Inst of Intl Studies, Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Marton

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Harel-Shalev, A., Wolberg, C. (2020). Human Security. In: Romaniuk, S., Thapa, M., Marton, P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_227-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_227-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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