ABSTRACT
This chapters makes it abundantly clear that human security is a contested concept. It is resisted by many traditional security analysts and practitioners, and there is disagreement among its supporters on a range of fundamental questions, including how to define the security referent, the sources and types of insecurity, the providers of security, the response to insecurities and the conditions for long-term security. The chapter demonstrates the virtue in different ways while also showing how critical scholarship can be constructive and policy-relevant. It provides the sustained analysis of how the concept of human security might be adapted and institutionalised in Australia. The chapter show how the concept of human security has the potential to inaugurate a sea change in Australia’s foreign policy away from the traditional notion of the Australian island continent as a fortress to be defended, and towards a deeper acknowledgement of the inextricable interdependencies between the security of Australia, the region and the rest of the world.
