Popularised by institutions such as the UNDP or the UN, by the governments of so-called middle powers (Canada, Japan and Norway) and by a Nobel Prize-winning academic such as Amartya Sen, human security --concept, framework, area of study, or policy agenda-- remains poorly consensually defined or delineated. Each actor and academic professes his own definition, which leads Roland Paris to profess that “the content of human security really is in the eye of the beholder”. Is this correct ? Are the
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The article aims to capture the dynamics of contesting security in Southeast Asia and examines how states and non-state actors have responded to the changing nature of the security environment. The argument here is that in spite of structural constraints and problems with conceptual clarity, human security is finding a place in the regional security discourses. Though found along the margins of subaltern security discourses, human security is the concept that embodies the security concerns of so
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In this article, we propose a simple, rigorous and measurable definition of human security; the number of years of future life spent outside a state of "generalized poverty". Generalized poverty occurs when an individual falls below the threshold of any key domain of human well-being. An agenda for research and action to enhance human security follows logically from this definition in the areas of risk assessment, prevention, protection and compensation. We propose that the academic and policy c
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