From Traditional Security to Human Security: A Conceptual Framework

Security is a much-contested concept that has multifarious meanings, dimensions, and interpretations. It has remained an important point of conversation on the global security agenda. The conventional idea of security was regarded as synonymous with the shielding of the state from outside hostility. During the 1990s following the end of the covert armed races and Cold War, the concept of threat of worldwide encounter and war among states was significantly reduced. Rather the occurrences of conflicts moved from inter-state to intra-state with higher incidences of non-military causalities. Moreover, several non-conventional dangers emerged. Such dangers affected individuals mostly than states. In this context, the realist conception of security failed to explain these new insecurities. Hence, stress on the security of human beings instead of the state was given, and therefore, a shifting of focus has been observed from state-centric security to human-centered security or Human Security (HS) in security studies globally. Against this background, the paper attempts to look into the change of course of the idea of security from the customary to a more extensive perspective focusing on human beings.