Human Security
How the concept of security expanded beyond states and armies to encompass the everyday threats facing individuals and communities.
Beyond the State
For most of modern history, security meant one thing: protecting the state from external military threats. Armies, navies, and alliances existed to defend borders and deter invasion. But in 1994, the United Nations Development Programme published a landmark Human Development Report that challenged this assumption. It argued that security should be measured not by how safe a government is, but by how safe ordinary people are. A country might have a powerful military yet fail to protect its citizens from famine, disease, or political violence.
The UNDP identified seven dimensions of human security: economic security (freedom from poverty), food security (access to nutrition), health security (protection from disease), environmental security (a livable natural world), personal security (safety from violence and crime), community security (protection of cultural identity), and political security (respect for basic human rights). This framework was revolutionary because it placed individuals, not states, at the center of security thinking.