ABSTRACT
After the Cold War, at the urging of various civil society groups, scholars and policymakers broadened the focus of international security to include an array of threats to individual people, under the heading of human security. Despite sustained effort, human security remains an underprovided good. This chapter uses the tools of public goods theory to illuminate the reasons that human security remains too scarce. It conceptualizes human security in terms of three kinds of goods: social and economic equity; humanitarian intervention; and peacebuilding. The chapter shows that these three goods are each subject to slightly different collective action problems that help to explain their under-provision, and it illustrates these challenges using the global refugee crisis as a case. The conclusion discusses how a variety of international actors might be more effectively induced to provide human security to vulnerable populations.
