On 18 May 2022, Plataforma CIPÓ took part in the webinar “Human security in an evolving global landscape,” organised by the London-based think tank Institute for Security Studies (IISS). Panellists focused on different but complementary dimensions of security and the compounded threats that further expand the notion of security. In light of a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) publication – New Threats to Human Security in the Anthropocene – which found that 6 out of 7 people globally feel insecure about many aspects of their lives– panellists reflected on the implications for policy in various domains and with a special focus on conflict-affected countries.
Background: The concept of human security was first introduced in the aftermath of the Cold War at a time of rising multilateral and inter-state cooperation. The idea that people’s security deserved recognition next to state and territorial security was not only novel, but universal, as the 2012 United Nations General Assembly’s endorsement of human security proved. Substantially, a human security approach emphasizes the cross-cutting nature of contemporary challenges, including security threats and armed conflict, poverty and exclusion, and natural disasters, among others.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects from climate change, and their socio-economic fallout have added strains to people’s livelihoods and perceptions of security in many areas of the world. The risk and the opportunities from the fast pace of technological change are also becoming central to the analysis of and the responses to human security challenges. In the international system, a new global order underpinned by the return to great-power competition and the current war in Ukraine is emerging. None of these challenges can be thought through nor addressed in isolation. Instead, the interconnected nature of global challenges calls for new discussion and thinking on human security, and how to bridge its different declinations with other security concerns, including state security.
Speakers:
Dr Adriana Abdenur, Co-founder and Executive Director of Plataforma CIPÓ.
Dr Greg Austin, IISS Cyber, Space and Future Conflict Programme.
Sarah F. Cliffe, Director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC).
Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and lead author of the Human Development Report.
Dr Des Gasper, Professor Emeritus (Human Development, Development Ethics, and Public Policy) at the International Institute of Social Studies (The Hague), in Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Dr Alexandre Marc, Associate Fellow for Conflict, Security and Development at the IISS. (moderator)
