The Many Faces Of Human Security

Understanding the Many Faces of Human Security: Perspectives of Northern Indigenous Peoplesaddresses the different aspects of the human security challenges threatening Northern indigenous peoples. These peoples, whose unique, nature-based livelihoods maintain their identity, face difficulties linked to a changing natural and social environment. Their traditional worldviews are challenged as the world they have known for generations is literally melting away. The North experiences numerous pressures linked to rapid modernization, industrialization, demographic pressure and cultural changes. These threats are presented from various angles, such as indigenous understanding of security, governance, sustainability, livelihood practices, mining, nature-based resources and land use management, gender and the elderly. The focus groups of the book are the Ainu, Inuit, Nenets, Sámi and the Mongolian indigenous herders.

Understanding the Many Faces of Human Security: Perspectives of Northern Indigenous Peoples addresses different aspects of human security threats upon the indigenous peoples of the North: the Ainu, Inuit, Nenets, Sámi and the Mongolian indigenous herders.

Human security is about everyday realities of violent conflict and poverty, humanitarian crises, epidemic diseases, injustice and inequality. It is about freedom from fear and freedom from want. It is much different from state-related security with its emphasis on military force, territory and sovereignty. Human security places the security of individuals, communities and global humanity ahead of the security concerns of the state. How does human security relate to international security? Can human security still be advanced in a global climate of intrastate conflict, the war on terror and increasing nuclear tensions? This book challenges prevailing security thinking and explores basic standards of humanity. This multi-authored book deals with the origins and developments of human security as a concept and how it is used in policy practice. It presents new approaches by focusing on alternative discourses, the actors involved, and the new forms of governance that are required. It outlines the challenges human security faces in different parts of the world due to conflict, terrorism and new wars; globalisation and the resurgence of religion; development cooperation, environmental problems and the role of science. Facing the challenges, this book aims to raise human security out of the status of a contemporary ‘problématique’ by bringing it closer to a ‘résolutique’. 'I am convinced that this book provides an original contribution and a further impetus to developing well-grounded academic and policy responses to world-wide problems that so urgently require solutions.' M.S. Swaminathan, President Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Written by diplomatic practitioners, Human Security and the New Diplomacy is a straightforward account of challenges already overcome and the prospect for further progress. From the evolution of peace-keeping, to peacebuilding, humanitarian intervention, war-affected children, international humanitarian law, the International Criminal Court, the economic agendas of conflict, transnational crime, and the emergence of connectivity and a global civil society, the authors offer new insights into the importance of considering these issues as part of a single agenda. Human Security and the New Diplomacy is a case-study of a major Canadian foreign policy initiative and a detailed account of the first phase of the human security agenda. The story of Canada's leading role in promoting a humanitarian approach to international relations, it will be of interest to foreign policy specialists and students alike. Contributors include David Angell, Alan Bones, Michael Bonser, Terry Cormier, Patricia Fortier, Bob Fowler, Elissa Goldberg, Mark Gwozdecky, Sam Hanson, Paul Heinbecker, Eric Hoskins, Don Hubert, David Lee, Dan Livermore, Jennifer Loten, Rob McRae, Valerie Ooterveld, Victor Rakmil, Darryl Robinson, Jill Sinclair, Michael Small, Ross Snyder, Carmen Sorger, and Roman Waschuk.

This book is intended as an introductory text from senior undergraduate level up, to be used in courses on international studies and relations, political studies, history, human geography, anthropology and human ecology, futures studies, applied social studies, public health, and other fields. It represents in a coherent fashion the new subject of human security and sets it apart from more traditional models of security. Its approach is deliberately multidisciplinary and transcultural. In addition to a thorough overview of the human security concept, the chapters address problems and opportunities in international law, politics, international relations, human ecology, ethics, law enforcement, development aid, human rights, and public health. The reader is also introduced to specific human security regimes that address human rights violations, peace building and conflict resolution, as well as global environmental governance. The book encourages a vision of the future that acknowledges the certainty of change, extrapolates significant current trends, and questions the values, beliefs and ideals that tend to inform dominant notions of development. Because of its transdisciplinary approach, the book will appeal to a very wide range of interests at the post-secondary/tertiary level. It will be of particular interest to college and university undergraduate students as well as graduate students and researchers, and also to educators from various disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

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.