H U M A N S E C U R I T Y B R I E F 2 0 0 6

WHAT IS HUMAN SECURITY?Human security is a relatively new concept, but one that is now widely used to describe the complexof interrelated threats associated with civil war, genocide, and the displacement of populations. Thedistinction between human security and national security is a basic but important one.While national security focuses on the defence ofthe state from external attack, human security is aboutprotecting individuals and communities from any form ofpolitical violence.Human security and national security should be—andoften are—mutually reinforcing. But secure states do notautomatically mean secure peoples. Protecting citizens fromforeign attack may be a necessary condition for the securityof individuals, but it is not a sufficient one. Indeed, duringthe last 100 years far more people have been killed by theirown governments than by foreign armies.All proponents of human security agree that itsprimary goal is the protection of individuals. But consensusbreaks down over what threats individuals should beprotected from. Proponents of the “narrow” concept ofhuman security, which underpins the Human Security Report,focus on violent threats to individuals, while recognizing thatthese threats are strongly associated with poverty, lack ofstate capacity and various forms of socio-economic andpolitical inequity.Proponents of the “broad” concept of human securityarticulated in the UN Development Programme’s 1994,Human Development Report, and the Commission on HumanSecurity’s 2003 report, Human Security Now, argue that thethreat agenda should be broadened to include hunger,disease, and natural disasters because these kill far morepeople than war, genocide, and terrorism combined.Although still subject to lively debate within theresearch community, the two approaches to human securityare complementary rather than contradictory.