Human Security Roland Paris

Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?

H
Human Security

uman security is
the latest in a long line of neologisms—including common security, global se-
curity, cooperative security, and comprehensive security—that encourage pol-
icymakers and scholars to think about international security as something
more than the military defense of state interests and territory. Although
deªnitions of human security vary, most formulations emphasize the welfare
of ordinary people. Among the most vocal promoters of human security are
the governments of Canada and Norway, which have taken the lead in estab-
lishing a “human security network” of states and nongovernmental organiza-
tions (NGOs) that endorse the concept.1 The term has also begun to appear in
academic works,2 and is the subject of new research projects at several major
universities.3

Roland Paris is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Colo-
rado, Boulder.

My thanks to Michael Barnett, Francis Beer, Stephen Brooks, Steve Chan, Claudio Ciofª, Daniel
Drezner, Colin Dueck, Natalie Goldring, Ian Hurd, Peter Viggo Jakobsen, David Leblang, Daniel
Lindley, Michael Lipson, and Thomas Weiss for comments on previous drafts. An earlier version
of this article was presented to the joint meeting of the International Security and Arms Control
section of the American Political Science Association and the International Security Studies section
of the International Studies Association in Denver, Colorado (November 9–11, 2000), and at the an-
nual conference of the International Studies Association in Chicago, Illinois (February 20–24, 2001).

1. Other states in the network include Austria, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Mali, the Nether-
lands, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Thailand. See “Chairman’s Summary,” Second Ministerial Meet-
ing of the Human Security Network, Lucerne, Switzerland, May 11–12, 2000, http://www.dfait-
maeci.gc.ca/foreignp/humansecurity/Chairman_summary-e.asp (accessed on February 14, 2001).
2. For example, Yuen Foong Khong, “Human Security: A Shotgun Approach to Alleviating Hu-
man Misery?” Global Governance, Vol. 7, No. 3 (July–September 2001); Oliver Richmond, “Human
Security, the ‘Rule of Law,’ and NGOs: Potentials and Problems for Humanitarian Intervention,”
Human Rights Review, Vol. 2, No. 4 (July–September 2001); Astri Suhrke, “Human Security and the
Interests of States,” Security Dialogue, Vol. 30, No. 3 (September 1999), pp. 265–276; Peter Stoett, Hu-
man and Global Security: An Exploration of Terms (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999); Caro-
line Thomas and Peter Wilkin, eds., Globalization, Human Security, and the African Experience
(Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1999); Jorge Nef, Human Security and Mutual Vulnerability: The
Global Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment, 2d ed. (Ottawa: International Devel-
opment Research Centre, 1999); Majid Tehranian, ed., Worlds Apart: Human Security and Global Gov-
ernance (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999); Heather Owens and Barbara Arneil, “The Human Security
Paradigm Shift: A New Lens on Canadian Foreign Policy? Report of the University of British Co-
lumbia Symposium on Human Security,” ibid., pp. 1–12; Ramesh Thakur, “The United Nations
and Human Security,” ibid., pp. 51–60; and Tatsuro Matsumae and L.C. Chen, eds., Common Secu-
rity in Asia: New Concept of Human Security (Tokyo: Tokai University Press, 1995).
3. These include Harvard University’s Program on Human Security, the University of Denver’s

International Security, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 87–102

© 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

87
 International Security 26:2 88

Some commentators argue that human security represents a new paradigm

for scholars and practitioners alike. Despite these claims, however, it remains
unclear whether the concept of human security can serve as a practical guide
for academic research or governmental policymaking. As Daniel Deudney has
written in another context, “Not all neologisms are equally plausible or use-
ful.”4 Two problems, in particular, limit the usefulness of the human security
concept for students and practitioners of international politics. First, the con-
cept lacks a precise deªnition. Human security is like “sustainable develop-
ment”—everyone is for it, but few people have a clear idea of what it means.
Existing deªnitions of human security tend to be extraordinarily expansive
and vague, encompassing everything from physical security to psychological
well-being, which provides policymakers with little guidance in the prioritiza-
tion of competing policy goals and academics little sense of what, exactly, is to
be studied.
Second, the most ardent backers of human security appear to have an inter-
est in keeping the term expansive and vague. The idea of human security is the
glue that holds together a jumbled coalition of “middle power” states, devel-
opment agencies, and NGOs—all of which seek to shift attention and resources
away from conventional security issues and toward goals that have tradition-
ally fallen under the rubric of international development. As a unifying con-
cept for this coalition, human security is powerful precisely because it lacks
precision and thereby encompasses the diverse perspectives and objectives of
all the members of the coalition. The term, in short, appears to be slippery by
design. Cultivated ambiguity renders human security an effective campaign
slogan, but it also diminishes the concept’s usefulness as a guide for academic
research or policymaking.
This is not to say that human security is merely “hot air” or empty rhetoric.
The political coalition that now uses human security as a rallying cry has
chalked up signiªcant accomplishments, including the signing of an anti-
personnel land mines convention and the imminent creation of an interna-
tional criminal court. The alliance of some states and advocacy groups has al-
tered the landscape of international politics since the end of the Cold War, as
Richard Price and others have shown.5 But to say that human security has

Graduate School of International Studies, the University of New South Wales’s Asia-Australia In-
stitute, and the University of British Columbia’s Institute of International Relations.
4. Daniel Deudney, “Environment and Security: Muddled Thinking,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scien-
tists, Vol. 47, No. 3 (April 1991), p. 23.
5. Richard Price, “Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines,” In-
ternational Organization, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Summer 1998), pp. 613–644; and Craig Warkentin and Karen
 Human Security 89

served as an effective rallying cry is different from claiming that the concept of-
fers a useful framework for analysis, as some of its proponents maintain.6
Campaign slogans can be consequential without being well deªned. The im-
pact of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society rhetoric, for example, was arguably
signiªcant—serving as a focal point for political supporters of his reformist so-
cial agenda—but the exact meaning of the term “great society” was obscure.
Similarly, one can support the political goals of the human security coalition
while recognizing that the idea of human security itself is a muddle.
This article proceeds as follows. First, I examine existing deªnitions of hu-
man security. Second, I explore the limits of human security as a practical
guide for academic research and policymaking. Third, I examine recent efforts
to narrow the deªnition of human security. Fourth, I consider ways in which
the concept might, despite its limitations, make a contribution to the study of
international relations and security.

What Is Human Security?

The ªrst major statement concerning human security appeared in the 1994 Hu-
man Development Report, an annual publication of the United Nations Develop-
ment Programme (UNDP). “The concept of security,” the report argues, “has
for too long been interpreted narrowly: as security of territory from external
aggression, or as protection of national interests in foreign policy or as global
security from the threat of nuclear holocaust....Forgotten were the legitimate
concerns of ordinary people who sought security in their daily lives.”7 This cri-
tique is clear and forceful, but the report’s subsequent proposal for a new con-
cept of security—human security—lacks precision: “Human security can be
said to have two main aspects. It means, ªrst, safety from such chronic threats
as hunger, disease and repression. And second, it means protection from sud-
den and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life—whether in homes, in
jobs or in communities.”8 The scope of this deªnition is vast: Virtually any
kind of unexpected or irregular discomfort could conceivably constitute a
threat to one’s human security. Perhaps anticipating this criticism, the authors

Mingst, “International Institutions, the State, and Global Civil Society in the Age of the World
Wide Web,” Global Governance, Vol. 6, No. 2 (April–June 2000), pp. 237–257.
6. Laura Reed and Majid Tehranian, “Evolving Security Regimes,” in Tehranian, Worlds Apart,
p. 35.
7. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report, 1994 (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994), p. 22.
8. Ibid., p. 23.
 International Security 26:2 90

of the report identify seven speciªc elements that comprise human security: (1)
economic security (e.g., freedom from poverty); (2) food security (e.g., access to
food); (3) health security (e.g., access to health care and protection from dis-
eases); (4) environmental security (e.g., protection from such dangers as envi-
ronmental pollution and depletion); (5) personal security (e.g., physical safety
from such things as torture, war, criminal attacks, domestic violence, drug use,
suicide, and even trafªc accidents); (6) community security (e.g., survival of
traditional cultures and ethnic groups as well as the physical security of these
groups); and (7) political security (e.g., enjoyment of civil and political rights,
and freedom from political oppression). This list is so broad that it is difªcult
to determine what, if anything, might be excluded from the deªnition of hu-
man security. Indeed the drafters of the report seem distinctly uninterested in
establishing any deªnitional boundaries. Instead they make a point of com-
mending the “all-encompassing” and “integrative” qualities of the human se-
curity concept, which they apparently view as among the concept’s major
strengths.9
Today the UNDP’s 1994 deªnition of human security remains the most
widely cited and “most authoritative” formulation of the term,10 although
different members of the human security coalition have customized the
deªnition to suit their own particular interests. According to the government of
Japan, for example, the concept of human security “comprehensively covers
all the measures that threaten human survival, daily life, and dignity—for
example, environmental degradation, violations of human rights, transna-
tional organized crime, illicit drugs, refugees, poverty, anti-personnel land-
mines and...infectious diseases such as AIDS—and strengthens efforts to
confront these threats.”11 Other states, such as Canada, have promoted a more
restrictive deªnition of human security as “freedom from pervasive threats to
people’s rights, safety or lives.”12 But even this slightly narrower con-

9. Ibid., p. 24.
10. John G. Cockell, “Conceptualising Peacebuilding: Human Security and Sustainable Peace,” in
Michael Pugh, ed., Regeneration of War-Torn Societies (London: Macmillan, 2000), p. 21.
11. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Bluebook, 1999, chap. 2, sec. 3. See also “State-
ment by Director-General Yukio Takasu at the International Conference on Human Security in a
Globalized World,” Ulan Bator, May 8, 2000. Both documents are reproduced on the Japanese for-
eign ministry’s web site at http://www.mofa.go.jp (accessed on February 14, 2001).
12. Canadian foreign ministry web site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreignp/humansecurity/
menu-e.asp (accessed on February 14, 2001). See also the statement by former Canadian Foreign
Minister Lloyd Axworthy, “Canada and Human Security: The Need for Leadership,” International
Journal, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Spring 1997), pp. 183–196. Since leaving his post as foreign minister in 2000,
Axworthy has continued to espouse the concept of human security; see Lloyd Axworthy, “Human
Security and Global Governance: Putting People First,” Global Governance, Vol. 7, No. 1 (January–
March 2001), pp. 19–23.
 Human Security 91

ceptualization of human security is sweeping and open-ended: Among other

things, the Canadian formulation includes safety from physical threats, the
achievement of an acceptable quality of life, a guarantee of fundamental hu-
man rights, the rule of law, good governance, social equity, protection of civil-
ians in conºicts, and sustainable development.13 Meanwhile the human
security network—which, in addition to Canada, Norway, and Japan, includes
several other states and a broad assortment of international NGOs—has com-
mitted itself to the goal of “strengthening human security with a view to creat-
ing a more humane world where people can live in security and dignity, free
from want and fear, and with equal opportunities to develop their human po-
tential to the full.”14 The sentiments embodied in these statements are honor-
able, but they do little to clarify the meaning or boundaries of the human
security concept.
Some academic writings on the subject have been similarly opaque. Many
works amount to restatements or revisions of the UNDP’s laundry list of hu-
man security issues. Jorge Nef, for example, devises a ªvefold classiªcation
scheme, arguing that human security comprises (1) environmental, personal,
and physical security, (2) economic security, (3) social security, including “free-
dom from discrimination based on age, gender, ethnicity, or social status,” (4)
political security, and (5) cultural security, or “the set of psychological orienta-
tions of society geared to preserving and enhancing the ability to control un-
certainty and fear.”15 Laura Reed and Majid Tehranian offer their own list of
human security’s ten constituent elements—including psychological security,
which “hinges on establishing conditions fostering respectful, loving, and hu-
mane interpersonal relations,” and communication security, or the importance
of “freedom and balance in information ºows.”16 Other scholars avoid the
laundry list approach, but offer equally expansive deªnitions. According to
Caroline Thomas, human security refers to the provision of “basic material
needs” and the realization of “human dignity,” including “emancipation from
oppressive power structures—be they global, national, or local in origin and
scope.”17 For Robert Bedeski, human security includes “the totality of knowl-
edge, technology, institutions and activities that protect, defend and preserve
the biological existence of human life; and the processes which protect and

13. Axworthy, “Canada and Human Security,” p. 184.

14. “Chairman’s Summary,” Second Ministerial Meeting of the Human Security Network.
15. Nef, Human Security and Mutual Vulnerability, p. 25.
16. Reed and Tehranian, “Evolving Security Regimes,” pp. 39 and 47.
17. Caroline Thomas, “Introduction,” in Thomas and Wilkin, Globalization, Human Security, and the
African Experience, p. 3.
 International Security 26:2 92

perfect collective peace and prosperity to enhance human freedom.”18 Again, if

human security is all these things, what is it not?

A Guide for Research and Policymaking?

Policymakers and scholars face different, but related, problems in attempting

to put these deªnitions of human security into practical use. For policymakers,
the challenge is to move beyond all-encompassing exhortations and to focus
on speciªc solutions to speciªc political issues. This is a difªcult task not only
because of the broad sweep and deªnitional elasticity of most formulations of
human security but also—and perhaps even more problematically—because
the proponents of human security are typically reluctant to prioritize the jum-
ble of goals and principles that make up the concept. As noted above, part of
the ethic of the human security movement is to emphasize the “inclusiveness”
and “holism” of the term, which in practice seems to mean treating all interests
and objectives within the movement as equally valid. Reed and Tehranian, for
instance, after presenting their list of ten constituent categories of human secu-
rity, conclude with this caveat: “It is important to reiterate that these overlap-
ping categories do not represent a hierarchy of security needs from personal to
national, international, and environmental rights. On the contrary, each realm
impinges upon the others and is intrinsically connected to wider political and
economic considerations.”19 The observation that all human and natural
realms are fundamentally interrelated is a truism, and does not provide a very
convincing justiªcation for treating all needs, values, and policy objectives as
equally important. Nor does it help decisionmakers in their daily task of allo-
cating scarce resources among competing goals: After all, not everything can
be a matter of national security, with all of the urgency that this term implies.
To put it simply, human security “is too broad and vague a concept to be
meaningful for policymakers, as it has come to entail such a wide range of dif-
ferent threats on one hand, while prescribing a diverse and sometimes incom-
patible set of policy solutions to resolve them on the other.”20
For those who study, rather than practice, international politics, the task of
transforming the idea of human security into a useful analytical tool for schol-

18. Robert Bedeski, “Human Security, Knowledge, and the Evolution of the Northeast Asian
State,” Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, February 8, 2000, http://
www.globalcentres.org/docs/bedeski.html (accessed on February 14, 2001).
19. Reed and Tehranian, “Evolving Security Regimes,” p. 53.
20. Owens and Arneil, “The Human Security Paradigm Shift,” p. 2.
 Human Security 93

arly research is also problematic. Given the hodgepodge of principles and ob-
jectives associated with the concept, it is far from clear what academics should
even be studying. Human security seems capable of supporting virtually any
hypothesis—along with its opposite—depending on the prejudices and inter-
ests of the particular researcher. Further, because the concept of human secu-
rity encompasses both physical security and more general notions of social,
economic, cultural, and psychological well-being, it is impractical to talk about
certain socioeconomic factors “causing” an increase or decline in human secu-
rity, given that these factors are themselves part of the deªnition of human se-
curity. The study of causal relationships requires a degree of analytical
separation that the notion of human security lacks.21
To illustrate these problems, consider John Cockell’s efforts to apply the hu-
man security concept to the phenomenon of international peacebuilding oper-
ations in countries at risk of slipping into, or just emerging from, civil war.22
After embracing the open-ended UNDP deªnition of human security, Cockell
states that “peacebuilding is a sustained process of preventing internal threats
to human security from causing protracted, violent conºict.”23 Yet because the
UNDP deªnition of human security includes safety from violence as a central
component of human security, Cockell is effectively saying that peacebuilding
seeks to prevent a decline in human security from causing a decline in human
security, which makes little sense. He then identiªes “four basic parameters,”
based on the principles of human security, for the conduct of peacebuilding
operations: Peacebuilders should focus on root causes of conºicts, pay atten-
tion to the differences in local conditions from one operation to the next, seek
sustainable and durable results, and mobilize local actors and resources in sup-
port of peace. Although these guidelines seem reasonable, the sprawling con-
cept of human security could support many more—and quite different—
principles for peacebuilding. Indeed Cockell himself acknowledges that his
policy prescriptions are “arbitrary,” which belies the notion that human secu-
rity entails a particular “orientation” toward peacebuilding, as Cockell
claims.24 More generally, if human security means almost anything, then it ef-
fectively means nothing.25

21. Suhrke makes a similar point in “Human Security and the Interests of States,” pp. 270–271.
22. Cockell, “Conceptualising Peacebuilding.”
23. Ibid., p. 21.
24. Ibid., pp. 26, 21.
25. On the problem of “conceptual stretching,” see Giovanni Sartori, “Concept Misinformation in
Comparative Politics,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 64, No. 4 (December 1970), pp. 1033–
1053.
 International Security 26:2 94

Attempts to Narrow the Concept

One possible remedy for the expansiveness and vagueness of human security
is to redeªne the concept in much narrower and more precise terms, so that it
might offer a better guide for research and policymaking. This is the approach
that Gary King and Christopher Murray have adopted in their ongoing project
on human security.26 King and Murray offer a deªnition of human security
that is intended to include only “essential” elements, meaning elements that
are “important enough for human beings to ªght over or to put their lives
or property at great risk.”27 Using this standard, they identify ªve key indica-
tors of well-being—poverty, health, education, political freedom, and democ-
racy—that they intend to incorporate into an overall measure of human
security for individuals and groups. Similarly, another scholar, Kanti Bajpai,
proposes construction of a “human security audit” that would include mea-
sures of “direct and indirect threats to individual bodily safety and freedom,”
as well as measures of different societies’ “capacity to deal with these threats,
namely, the fostering of norms, institutions, and . . . representativeness in
decisionmaking structures.”28 Although both projects are still in the early
stages of development, they represent welcome efforts at operationalizing the
concept of human security with a more precise deªnition of the term. A clear
measure or audit of human security would allow scholars to assess the factors
that lead to declines or increases in the human security of particular groups or
individuals.29
Both of these projects, however, face problems that seem endemic to the
study of human security. First, they identify certain values as more important
than others without providing a clear justiªcation for doing so. Bajpai, for in-
stance, proposes inclusion of “bodily safety” and “personal freedom” in his
human security audit, and argues that this audit would draw attention to the
fact that “threats to safety and freedom are the most important” elements of hu-

26. Gary King and Christopher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” Harvard University, May
4, 2000, http://gking.harvard.edu/ªles/hs.pdf (accessed on February 14, 2001).
27. Ibid., p. 8.
28. Kanti Bajpai, “Human Security: Concept and Measurement,” Kroc Institute Occasional Paper
No. 19:OP:1 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame, August 2000), http://www.nd.edu/
?krocinst/ocpapers/op_19_1.PDF (accessed on February 14, 2001).
29. In addition to these projects, on January 24, 2001, the United Nations and the government of
Japan announced plans to establish a Commission on Human Security, which will be cochaired by
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sadako
Ogata. See “Independent Panel on ‘Human Security’ To Be Set Up,” Agence France-Press, January
24, 2001.
 Human Security 95

man security.30 He does not explain, however, why other values are not
equally, or perhaps even more, important than the values he champions. What
about education? Is the ability to choose one’s marriage partner, which is one
of Bajpai’s examples of personal freedom, really more important than, say, a
good education? Perhaps it is, but Bajpai does not address this issue. Similarly,
King and Murray state that their formulation of human security includes only
those matters that people would be willing to ªght over. But they neglect to of-
fer evidence that their ªve indicators are, in fact, closely related to the risk of
violent conºict. In other words, they favor certain values as representative of
human security without offering a clear justiªcation for doing so. Additionally,
their decision to exclude indicators of violence from their composite measure
of human security creates a de facto distinction between human security and
physical security, thereby purging the most familiar connotation of security—
safety from violence—from their deªnition of human security. Under the King-
Murray formulation, individuals could ªnd themselves in the strange position
of enjoying a high level of human security (low poverty, reasonable health
care, good education, political freedom, and democracy), while facing a rela-
tively high risk of becoming victims of deadly violence. One need only think of
residents of certain neighborhoods in Belfast, who might not consider them-
selves very “secure.” Thus the challenge for these scholars is not simply to nar-
row the deªnition of human security into a more analytically tractable concept,
but to provide a compelling rationale for highlighting certain values.
This raises another problem. Deªning the core values of human security
may be difªcult not only because there is so little agreement on the meaning of
human security, but because the term’s ambiguity serves a particular purpose:
It unites a diverse and sometimes fractious coalition of states and organiza-
tions that “see an opportunity to capture some of the more substantial political
interest and superior ªnancial resources” associated with more traditional,
military conceptions of security.31 These actors have in effect pursued a politi-
cal strategy of “appropriating” the term “security,” which conveys urgency,
demands public attention, and commands governmental resources.32 By main-

30. Ibid., p. 53 (emphasis added).

31. King and Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” p. 4. See also Mahbub ul Haq, Reºections on
Human Development, exp. ed. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998). On the strategic use of the
term “security” as a tool for changing policy or obtaining resources, see Emma Rothschild, “What
Is Security?” Dædalus, Vol. 124, No. 3 (Summer 1995), pp. 58–59.
32. On the urgency that is automatically associated with the concept of national security, see Da-
vid E. Sanger, “Sometimes National Security Says It All,” New York Times, Week in Review, May 7,
2000, p. 3.
 International Security 26:2 96

taining a certain level of ambiguity in the notion of human security, moreover,

the members of this coalition are able to minimize their individual differences,
thereby accommodating as wide a variety of members and interests in their
network as possible.33 Given these circumstances, they are unlikely to support
outside calls for greater speciªcity in the deªnition of human security, because
deªnitional narrowing would likely highlight and aggravate differences
among them, perhaps even to the point of alienating certain members and
weakening the coalition as a whole.
Why, then, should scholars bother trying to transform the concept of human
security into a serviceable analytical tool at all? Why embark on what could
well be a quixotic quest to wrest the deªnition of human security away from
those who have an interest in keeping it vague and expansive? Perhaps a more
sensible alternative would be to employ a less politically encumbered termi-
nology, or to think about other ways in which the concept of human security
could contribute to the ªeld of security studies.

Human Security as a Category of Research

To recapitulate my argument so far: Human security does not appear to offer a

particularly useful framework of analysis for scholars or policymakers. But
perhaps there are other avenues by which the idea of human security can con-
tribute to the study of international relations and security. I would like to sug-
gest one such possibility: Human security may serve as a label for a broad
category of research in the ªeld of security studies that is primarily concerned
with nonmilitary threats to the safety of societies, groups, and individuals, in
contrast to more traditional approaches to security studies that focus on pro-
tecting states from external threats. Much of this work is relatively new, and
our understanding of how such research “ªts” within the larger ªeld of secu-
rity studies is still limited. In other words, even if the concept of human secu-

33. The communiqués of the human security network, for example, describe the concept of human
security more vaguely than do Canadian or Japanese government documents on the subject. Com-
pare “Chairman’s Summary,” Second Ministerial Meeting of the Human Security Network, to the
Government of Canada’s “Human Security: Safety for People in a Changing World,” Department
of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, May 1999, and the “Statement by Director-General
Yukio Takasu.” Bajpai also discusses some of these differences in “Human Security: Concept and
Measurement,” as does Fen Osler Hampson, “The Axworthy Years: An Assessment,” presentation
prepared for delivery to the Group of 78, National Press Club, Ottawa, October 31, 2000, http://
www.hri.ca/partners/G78/English/Peace/hampson-axworthy.htm (accessed on February 14,
2001).
 Human Security 97

rity itself is too vague to generate speciªc research questions, it could still play
a useful taxonomical role in the ªeld by helping to classify different types of
scholarship. Using human security in this manner would be compatible with
the spirit of the term—particularly its emphasis on nonmilitary sources of
conºict—while recognizing that there is little point in struggling to
operationalize the quicksilver concept of human security itself.
Despite resistance from some scholars, such as Stephen Walt, the ªeld of se-
curity studies has developed beyond its traditional focus on the “threat, use
and control of military force” primarily by states.34 Since the end of the Cold
War, in particular, the subject matter of security studies has undergone both a
“broadening” and a “deepening.”35 By broadening, I mean the consideration of
nonmilitary security threats, such as environmental scarcity and degradation,
the spread of disease, overpopulation, mass refugee movements, nationalism,
terrorism, and nuclear catastrophe.36 By deepening, I mean that the ªeld is
now more willing to consider the security of individuals and groups, rather
than focusing narrowly on external threats to states.37 These efforts have been
prompted in part by the contributions of “critical” theorists—including femi-
nists, postmodernists, and constructivists—who have probed the assumptions
and political implications of the term “security” itself.38
Using the notions of broadening and deepening, it is possible to construct a
matrix of the security studies ªeld, as illustrated in Figure 1. The matrix con-

34. Stephen M. Walt, “The Renaissance of Security Studies,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35,
No. 1 (March 1991), p. 212. For a critique of Walt’s traditionalism, see Edward A. Kolodziej, “Re-
naissance in Security Studies? Caveat Lector!” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4 (De-
cember 1992), pp. 421–438.
35. I borrow these terms from Richard Wyn Jones, Security, Strategy, and Critical Theory (Boulder,
Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1999).
36. See, for example, Richard H. Ullmann, “Redeªning Security,” International Security, Vol. 8, No.
1 (Summer 1983), pp. 129–153; Jessica Tuchman Mathews, “Redeªning Security,” Foreign Affairs,
Vol. 68, No. 2 (Spring 1989), pp. 162–177; and Sean M. Lynn-Jones and Steven E. Miller, eds., Global
Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995).
37. See, for example, Robert L. Rothstein, ed., After the Peace: Resistance and Reconciliation (Boulder,
Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1999); Barbara F. Walter, “Designing Transitions from Civil War: Demobiliza-
tion, Democratization, and Commitments to Peace,” International Security, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Summer
1999), pp. 127–155; Krishna Kumar, ed., Rebuilding Societies after Civil War: Critical Roles for Interna-
tional Assistance (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1997); and Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in
Conºict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
38. See, for example, Bill McSweeney, Security, Identity, and Interests: A Sociology of International Re-
lations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Keith Krause and Michael C. Williams,
eds., Critical Security Studies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997); David Campbell,
Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity (Manchester: Manchester Uni-
versity Press, 1998); and Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework
for Analysis (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1998).
 International Security 26:2 98

Figure 1. A Matrix of Security Studies

tains four cells, each representing a different cluster of literature in the ªeld. I
assume that a “security threat” connotes some type of menace to survival. The
top half of the map includes works that focus on security threats to states; the
bottom half comprises works that consider security threats to societies, groups,
and individuals. The left side of the matrix shows literature that focuses on
military threats, and the right side on military or nonmilitary threats, or both.
These divisions produce the following fourfold typology of the ªeld:
• Cell 1 contains works that concentrate on military threats to the security of
states. Conventional realists tend to adopt this perspective, which has tradi-
tionally dominated academic security studies, particularly in the United
States.39 Most of the articles published in International Security, for example,
fall into this category.

39. See, for example, Walt, “The Renaissance of Security Studies”; Richard K. Betts, “Should Stra-
tegic Studies Survive?” World Politics, Vol. 50, No. 1 (October 1997), pp. 7–33; Michael E. Brown,
Owen R. Coté, Jr., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Steven E. Miller, eds., America’s Strategic Choices, rev.
ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000); David A. Baldwin, “Security Studies and the End of the
Cold War,” World Politics, Vol. 48, No. 1 (October 1995), pp. 117–141; and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., and
 Human Security 99

• Cell 2 contains works that address nonmilitary threats (instead of, or in addi-
tion to, military threats) to the national security of states, including environ-
mental and economic challenges. Jessica Tuchman Mathews’s much-cited
1989 article, “Redeªning Security,” is typical of this category. Mathews ar-
gues that foreign security policies should incorporate considerations of envi-
ronmental destruction, among other things, but she still considers the state,
rather than substate actors, to be the salient object of security.40 Other exam-
ples of such work include the Palme Commission’s 1982 report, Common Se-
curity, which argued that nuclear weapons posed a threat to the survival of
all states;41 investigations into the relationship between environmental deg-
radation and international armed conºict;42 and studies of foreign economic
policy and international security.43
• Cell 3 includes works that focus on military threats to actors other than
states: namely societies, groups, and individuals. The prevalence of intrastate
violence since the end of the Cold War has given rise to a large literature on
intrastate conºicts, in which substate groups are the principal belligerents.44

Sean M. Lynn-Jones, “International Security Studies: A Report of a Conference on the State of the
Field,” International Security, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Spring 1988), pp. 5–27.
40. Mathews, “Redeªning Security.” See also Ullmann, “Redeªning Security”; and Joseph J.
Romm, Deªning National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Rela-
tions, 1993).
41. Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, Common Security: A Blueprint
for Survival (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982).
42. See, for example, Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1999); and Nils Peter Gleditsch, “Armed Conºict and the Environment:
A Critique of the Literature,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 35, No. 3 (May 1998), pp. 381–400. For
an excellent bibliography, see Geoffrey D. Dabelko, ed., Environmental Change and Security Project
Report, No. 6 (Summer 2000), pp. 232–238, also available at http://ecsp.si.edu/pdf/Report6–
10.pdf (accessed on May 5, 2001).
43. See, for example, Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Edward D. Mansªeld, and Norrin M. Ripsman, eds.,
Power and the Purse: Economic Statecraft, Interdependence, and National Security (London: Frank Cass,
2000), originally published as a special issue of Security Studies, Vol. 9, Nos. 1–2 (Autumn 1999–
Winter 2000), pp. 1–316; C. Fred Bergsten, “America’s Two-Front Economic Conºict,” Foreign Af-
fairs, Vol. 80, No. 2 (March–April 2001), pp. 16–27; Richard N. Haass, ed., Economic Sanctions and
American Diplomacy (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1998); and Jonathan Kirschner, “Po-
litical Economic in Security Studies after the Cold War,” Review of International Political Economy,
Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring 1998), pp. 64–91.
44. See, for example, John Mueller, “The Banality of ‘Ethnic War,’” International Security, Vol. 25,
No. 1 (Summer 2000), pp. 42–70; Benjamin Valentino, “Final Solutions: The Causes of Mass Killing
and Genocide,” Security Studies Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring 2000), pp. 1–59; Barbara F. Walter and Jack
Snyder, eds., Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999);
Beverly Crawford and Ronnie D. Lipschutz, eds., The Myth of ‘Ethnic Conºict’: Politics, Economics,
and ‘Cultural’ Violence (Berkeley: International and Area Studies, University of California, 1998);
Chaim Kaufmann, “Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars,” International Security,
 International Security 26:2 100

In addition, studies of “democide,” or the intentional killing by a state of its

own citizens, also fall into this category.45
• Cell 4 is concerned with military or nonmilitary threats—or both—to the se-
curity of societies, groups, and individuals. Does poverty, for example, fuel
violence within societies?46 Are certain types of domestic political institu-
tions more conducive to domestic peace?47 Is the degree of urbanization of a
society, or access to medical care, associated with the occurrence of civil vio-
lence?48 What other societal conditions pose a particular danger to the sur-
vival of groups and individuals? All of these questions would fall into the
category of research that I label “human security.”

Vol. 20, No. 4 (Spring 1996), pp. 136–175; Donald M. Snow, Uncivil Wars: International Security and
the New Internal Conºicts (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1996); Michael E. Brown, ed., Ethnic
Conºict and International Security (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993); and Roy
Licklider, ed., Stopping the Killing: How Civil Wars End (New York: New York University Press,
1993).
45. See, for example, R.J. Rummel, Power Kills: Democracy as a Method of Non-Violence (New Bruns-
wick, N.J.: Transaction, 1997); Gerald W. Scully, “Democide and Genocide as Rent-Seeking Activ-
ities,” Public Choice, Vol. 93, Nos. 1–2 (October 1997), pp. 77–97; and Matthew Krain, “State-
Sponsored Mass Murder: The Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides,” Journal of Conºict
Resolution, Vol. 41, No. 3 (June 1997), pp. 331–360.
46. Steve Majstorovic, “Politicized Ethnicity and Economic Inequality,” Nationalism and Ethnic Poli-
tics, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 33–53; Walker Connor, “Eco- or Ethno-Nationalism,” in Connor,
Ethnonationalism: The Quest for Understanding (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994),
pp. 145–164; Ted Robert Gurr, “Why Minorities Rebel: A Global Analysis of Communal Mobiliza-
tion and Conºict since 1945,” International Political Science Review, Vol. 14, No. 2 (April 1993),
pp. 161–201; Saul Newman, “Does Modernization Breed Ethnic Conºict?” World Politics, Vol. 43,
No. 3 (April 1991), pp. 451–478; James B. Rule, Theories of Civil Violence (Berkeley: University of Cal-
ifornia Press, 1988); Steven Finkel and James B. Rule, “Relative Deprivation and Related Theories
of Civil Violence: A Critical Review,” in Kurt Lang and Gladys Lang, eds., Research in Social Move-
ments, Conºicts, and Change (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI, 1986), Vol. 9, pp. 47–69; Ted Robert Gurr, Why
Men Rebel (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970); and William Ford and John Moore,
“Additional Evidence on the Social Characteristics of Riot Cities,” Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 51,
No. 2 (September 1970), pp. 339–348.
47. Håvard Hegre, Tanja Ellingsen, Nils Petter Gleditsch, and Scott Gales, “Towards a Democratic
Civil Peace? Opportunity, Grievance, and Civil War, 1816–1992,” paper presented to the workshop
Civil Conºicts, Crime, and Violence in Developing Countries, World Bank, Washington, D.C., Feb-
ruary 1999; Matthew Krain and Marissa Edson Myers, “Democracy and Civil War: A Note on the
Democratic Peace Proposition,” International Interactions, Vol. 23, No. 1 (June 1997), pp. 109–118;
and Michael Engelhardt, “Democracies, Dictatorships, and Counterinsurgency: Does Regime Type
Really Matter?” Conºict Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Summer 1992), pp. 52–63.
48. These two factors, among others, are studied in Daniel C. Esty, Jack A. Goldstone, Ted Robert
Gurr, Barbara Harff, Marc Levy, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Pamela T. Surko, and Alan N. Unger, State
Failure Task Force Report: Phase II Findings (McLean, Va.: Science Applications International Corpo-
ration, 1998). For a critique of this report, see Gary King and Langche Zeng, “Improving Forecasts
of State Failure,” paper prepared for the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in Chicago,
Illinois, November 13, 2000, http://gking.harvard.edu/ªles/civil.pdf (accessed on May 5, 2001).
 Human Security 101

Using the term “human security” to describe this type of scholarship has
several advantages. First, the contents of cell 4 echo many of the concerns of
the human security coalition, so it makes intuitive sense to use this terminol-
ogy. Second, employing human security as a label for a broad category of re-
search eliminates the problem of deriving clear hypotheses from the human
security concept itself—a concept that, I have argued, offers little analytical le-
verage because it is so sprawling and ambiguous. Consequently, scholars
working in the “human security branch” of security studies would not need to
adjudicate the merit or validity of human security per se, but rather they
would focus on more speciªc questions that could be clearly deªned (and per-
haps even answered). Third, and relatedly, although many scholars in this
branch of security studies may be interested in normative questions as well as
empirical ones, the advantage of using human security as a descriptive label
for a class of research is that the label would not presuppose any particular
normative agenda.49
Fourth, mapping the ªeld in this manner—with human security as one
branch—helps to differentiate the principal nontraditional approaches to secu-
rity studies from one another. With the broadening and deepening of security
studies in recent years, it is no longer helpful or reasonable to deªne the ªeld
in dualistic terms: with the realist, state-centric, military-minded approach to
security studies at the core and a disorderly bazaar of alternative approaches
in the periphery. These alternative approaches actually fall into broad group-
ings and have become sufªciently important to merit their own classiªcation
scheme. Mapping the ªeld in new ways can help us to understand how these
approaches relate to more traditional approaches to security studies, and to
one another. Finally, the very fashionability of the label “human security”
could beneªt scholars by drawing attention to existing works within cell 4 and
opening up new areas of research in this branch of the ªeld.
Of course, the boundaries between these four quadrants are not absolute.
Environmental degradation, for example, may simultaneously pose a threat to
the survival of states and substate actors, and could thus full into either cell 2
or cell 4.50 The permeability of these boundaries, however, is not a signiªcant

49. Scholars may conclude, for example, that certain socioeconomic conditions are not associated
with any particular threats to human survival.
50. Steven J. Del Rosso, Jr., “The Insecure State: Reºections on ‘The State’ and ‘Security’ in a
Changing World,” Dædalus, Vol. 124, No. 2 (Spring 1995), p. 185.
 International Security 26:2 102

problem for scholars because each quadrant represents a broad category of re-
search—or a cluster of issues and questions, rather than a distinct causal hy-
pothesis or theory—which would need to be more clearly speciªed.

Conclusion

Human security has been described as many different things: a rallying cry, a
political campaign, a set of beliefs about the sources of violent conºict, a new
conceptualization of security, and a guide for policymakers and academic re-
searchers. As a rallying cry, the idea of human security has successfully united
a diverse coalition of states, international agencies, and NGOs. As a political
campaign, the human security coalition has accomplished a number of speciªc
goals, such as the negotiation of the land mines convention. But as a new con-
ceptualization of security, or a set of beliefs about the sources of conºict, hu-
man security is so vague that it verges on meaninglessness—and consequently
offers little practical guidance to academics who might be interested in apply-
ing the concept, or to policymakers who must prioritize among competing pol-
icy goals. Efforts to sharpen the deªnition of human security are a step in the
right direction, but they are likely to encounter resistance from actors who
believe that the concept’s strength lies in its holism and inclusiveness.
Deªnitional expansiveness and ambiguity are powerful attributes of human
security, but only in the sense that they facilitate collective action by the mem-
bers of the human security coalition. The very same qualities, however, hobble
the concept of human security as a useful tool of analysis. On the other hand,
human security could provide a handy label for a broad category of research—
a distinct branch of security studies that explores the particular conditions that
affect the survival of individuals, groups, and societies—that may also help to
establish this brand of research as a central component of the security studies
ªeld.