Abstract:
One of the transformations in approach and thinking about peace and
security at the end of the Cold War is the emergence of the human
security paradigm. It argues for a focus on the individual as the
referent point for security rather than the state. Proponents of human
security offer this alternative perspective to national security, which
places the state at the core of security considerations. A peoplecentred
and multi-disciplinary understanding of security, they argue,
offers a more effective response to global vulnerabilities and insecurities.
Although writings and publications arguing for this wider
approach to security predate it, the 1994 Human Development Report
(HDR) published for the first time (and since then almost every year)
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) became a
landmark publication on Human Security. Invariably, many observers
and analysts alike have come to see the HDR of 1994 as a defining
moment for a shift in perspectives on security.
