HUMAN SECURITY

Catalog description

For a century or more, leaders around the globe have defined “national security” narrowly, focusing nearly entirely on perceived threats of physical violence against the systems they led. A less state-centric and more person-centric conceptualization of security recognizes that the threats to human security include not only violence against a state or economic system. Food insecurity, for instance, whether caused by famine, poverty, maldistribution of resources or structural disparities in access (for instance, so called “food deserts”) undermines the security not only of individuals, but communities and, thereby, leadership. Climate change has caused land erosion and, thereby, resource evolution and depletion in various parts of the globe, leaving whole communities (and thereby states) economically and physically vulnerable. This course explores multiple dimensions of human (in)security, examines related policies and stretches analytic muscles in considering potential solutions to causes of insecurity.