6901. Human Security: A Brief Report of the State of the Art
- Author:
- Khatchik Derghoukassian
- Publication Date:
- 11-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- Ten years after the end of the Cold War, a revised concept of “security” has not yet produced as broad or thorough understanding as when security implied a narrow, yet clear framework centered on the state and the military . The classical understanding of security, often referred to as “national security,” meant different uses of military force to defend the integrity of the state, generally in a strategically oriented, rational-choice perspective of analysis. Neither the growing interdependence of the 1970s along with the advance of the neo-institutionalist approach in international relations, nor the more realist-oriented efforts of linking the economy with security truly challenged a classical understanding of the concept of security. The fact that this theoretical understanding was widely applied in foreign and defense policy contributed to its strength, even if critics maintained that this was a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a widely quoted 1991 article, Stephen Walt offers a comprehensive review of the evolution of the field of study labeled “security studies” from the post-Second World War “Golden Age” to the “Renaissance” of the 1970s. Although Walt differentiates between the pre-Second World War study of strategy, limited to the professional military, and the expansion of the field with the involvement of civilians for the first time during World War II, he defined the focus of security studies clearly as the study of war.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy