Human Security In South Asia

There is a growing interest in human security in Southeast Asia. This book firstly explores the theoretical and conceptual basis of human security, before focusing on the region itself. It shows how human security has been taken up as a central part of security policy in individual states in Southeast Asia, as well as in the regional security policy within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The book discusses domestic challenges for human security including the insurgencies in southern Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Transnational security issues such as terrorism, drugs, human trafficking and the situation in Burma are explored by the author, and the ‘ASEAN’ way of contrasting the values and approaches of Southeast Asian countries with those in the West is assessed. By focusing on the ongoing changes and efforts to achieve human security in Southeast Asia, this book contributes to theoretical debates on human security as well as regional studies on Southeast Asia.

This book delves into the theory and praxis of human security in South Asia. Home to almost a quarter of the world’s population and fast emerging markets, South Asia holds social, geopolitical and economic significance in the current global context. The chapters in the volume: examine the challenges to human security through an exploration of environmental issues including water availability, electric waste, environmental governance and climate change; explore key themes such as development, displacement and migration, the role of civil society, sustainable development and poverty; and discuss developmental issues in South Asia and provide a holistic picture of non-military security issues. Bringing together scholars from varied disciplines, this comprehensive volume will be useful for researchers, teachers and students of international relations, human rights, political science, development studies, human geography and demography, defense and strategic studies, migration and diaspora studies, and South Asian studies.

The word security has a military connotation and refers to the activities involved in protecting or defending a country, in which the State has a central role. This book argues that the State provides as well as threatens security, and that by broadening the concept of security to include both military and non-military threats such as those related to ecological, social, economic and political causes, a system of checks and balances can be introduced to regulate the State.

The academic work titled as, South Asia Security , is a honest striving to delve into the notion of security in the South Asian Region which is under the arc of the Indian subcontinent. The Book objectifies the differentiation between the traditional and convention notions of security` which is avowedly power centric with the new tenet of Comprehensive/Human security which entails the concerns of sustainable development,Human Rights, Gender Empowerment along with the notions of Globalization and all pervading tenet of Interdependence with the advent of neo liberal institutionalism. The book aims to posit the traditional bilaterals in the South Asian firmament in the larger than life matrix of new age convergence and Interdependence.

India's explosive economic growth and emerging power status make it a key country of interest for policymakers, researchers and scholars within South Asia and around the world. But while many of India's threats and conflicts are strategized and discussed extensively within the confines of security studies, strategic studies and conventional international relations perspectives, many less visible challenges are set to impact significantly on India's potential for economic growth as well as the human security and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of Indian citizens. Drawing on extensive research within India, this book looks at some of the ‘hidden risks’ that India faces, exploring how a broadened scope of what constitutes ‘risk’ itself holds value for Indian security studies practitioners and policymakers. It highlights several human security risks facing India, including the inability of the world’s largest democracy to deal effectively with widespread poverty and health issues, resource depletion and environmental mismanagement, pervasive corruption and institutionalized crime, communal violence, a protracted Maoist insurgency, and deadlocked peace processes in the Northeast among others. The book extracts common themes from these seemingly disparate problems, discussing what underlying failures allow them to persist and why policymakers heavily securitize some political issues while ignoring others. Providing an understanding of how several lesser-studied risks can pose potential or actual threats to Indian society and its ‘emerging power’ growth narrative, this book is a useful contribution to South Asian Studies, International Security Studies and Global Politics.

This book makes an important and timely contribution to debates about the relationship between climate change and security in Southeast Asia. It does so through a human security lens, drawing on local and regional expertise to discuss the threats that climate change poses to human security in Southeast Asia and to show how a human security approach draws attention to the importance of adaptation and strategies for social resilience. In doing so, it exposes the consequences of climate change, the impact on community rights and access, the special problem of border areas, before going on to investigate local and regional strategies for addressing the human security challenges of climate change.

Human security is becoming increasingly pronounced in recent years due to changes in the security landscape of world politics. Yet, inter-state relations have continued to dominate security concerns in East Asia. This has, unfortunately, eluded the broader understanding of issues and challenges facing the peoples of East Asia. Home to nations with rapid economic growth and development, East Asia is at the core of what some individuals have termed as the coming Asian Century. Years of economic liberalization and exposure to globalization have permitted the region to achieve high levels of interconnectedness from within and without in unprecedented ways. This has certainly reduced state control and opened up spaces for cross-border human activities. While economic wealth have increased substantially over the years, it has also brought about bigger income disparities, unsustainable safety nets and a surge in social problems from health issues to migratory concerns that threaten the safety and well-being of individuals. Human Security: Securing East Asia’s Future timely examines the fundamental issues causing human insecurities and evaluates the extent of which human security plays a role at the state and regional levels. Covering the different areas of threats to humans and applying case study materials, this volume provides an intellectual mix of perspectives that captures the relationship between people, state and region. This book will be of interest to those studying traditional and non-traditional security/threats, Asian human development and critical policy analysis.