Human Security from Paradigm Shift to Operationalization: Job Description for a Human Security Worker

This article shows how human security has functioned as both a paradigm-shifting and a bridging concept, with its most significant implications being, first, the shift from a focus on state security to one on human rights, and, second, the indivisibility of physical and material security. The article will argue that, despite attempts at narrowing and appropriation, human security has lost neither its radical edge nor its holistic character; however, the bulk of the literature on the subject is theoretical, and there has not been a serious enough effort to operationalize the term so as to enable a real shift in policymaking. The second half of the article is an attempt to operationalize human security while respecting its paradigm-shifting and holistic character. It discusses necessary connections with wider policy shifts before outlining ways in which current intelligence, development, military and ‘state-building’ practices would have to be transformed to serve human security. Finally, a sketch is drawn of the ideal ‘human security worker’ of the future and the contexts in which she might work