Publications

When introduced in 1994, the human security approach refocused the security debate from territorial security to people’s security. This idea, which the UN General Assembly endorsed in 2012, invited security scholars and policymakers to look beyond protecting the nation-state to protecting what we care most about in our lives: our basic needs, our physical integrity, our human dignity. It emphasized the importance of everyone’s right to freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom from indignity. It highlighted the close connection among security, development and the protection and empowerment of individuals and communities. This Report explores how the new generation of interacting threats, playing out in the Anthropocene context, affect human security and what to do about it.