ABSTRACT
Human security became prominent in the security lexicon in the mid-1990s, a product of the international responses to fearful scenes of communal and ethnic violence in the Balkans after the fragmentation of the former socialist republic of Yugoslavia. The two sides of human security – freedom from want and freedom from fear – impel people to re-examine the concept of security and an appropriate policy framework for its realization, in holistic terms. In 1994, the UNDP Human Development Report cast the spotlight on the seven vectors it considers constitute the key threats to human security. The report identified these as economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security. The two organizations devoted to enhancing regional security in the Asia-Pacific, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum have both attempted to formulate new approaches to Asian security policy suited to the post-Cold War era.
