ABSTRACT
Although the contemporary world is often described as being plagued by insecurity, uncertainty, breakdown, alienation and despair, there is also a parallel discourse that celebrates the possibilities of human rights, human development and, more recently, human security. Humanity and security are often interlinked in both contemporary international relations theory and practice, the discourse of human security being one of the most interesting examples of the nexus between ‘humanity’ and ‘security’. The concept of human security was first coined in the 1994 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), but the idea of developing more ‘human’ understandings of security is part of a larger process of redefining security that began in the 1970s and 1980s. The end of the Cold War, the spread of globalization and democratization, the strengthened role of NGOs and the transformation of the role of the state are some of the most significant changes in the international system that have contributed to an alteration of conceptions of security (Tadjbakhsh and Chenoy 2009:1).
