ABSTRACT
Human security provides a different perspective on security than traditional military security which addresses troop strength, equipment, and military tactics. Its focus is not on military vulnerabilities but on societal and political forces that reduce the security of the state. Challenges to human security include violations of human rights, disease, demographic decline, and pollution as well as other factors that undermine society and the quality of life. Applying the human-security perspective to the phenomenon of human trafficking allows us to look beyond individual victimization to the greater social, political, and health costs. Human security is an approach to security studies that has achieved significant currency in countries which are not strong military powers, such as Japan, Canada, and some Scandinavian countries.
