Security broadly refers to the protection of the integral substance of people in a fashion that strengthens human freedoms and human dignity. It means safeguarding the well-being of individuals, families, communities, nations, and the entire globe in which people live from violent and pervasive threats and circumstances. According to Stekic (2018), human security means defending basic freedoms, which are the identity of life. Freedom from want entails protecting people in a way that enables them to fulfill their necessities along with the social, economic, and environmental elements of existence and livelihoods. The freedom from fear embroils protecting the populace against dangers in their physical being. This covers different kinds of unrests that possibly will emanate from external regions, the ordinances of one faction against others, the acts of a nation against its residents, and the acts of people amongst themselves. Lastly, the freedom from indignity denotes promoting a better quality of life and improvement of human good that allows people to formulate options and seek alternatives for empowerment.
Threats to Human Security
Many people consider the current global order to be filled with threats and insecurities on many fronts. In a narrow sense, threats to human security involve violent threats to people. These kinds of threats are forcefully equated to persistent poverty, lack of government responsibility, and varied aspects of political and socio-economic inequity. In a broader sense, dangers to human security cover a wider range of threats. These include hunger, epidemics and natural disasters, protracted crises, and economic downturns that inflict suffering and undercut expectations for stability, harmony, and sustainable development (Holm, 2017). These kinds of threats are sophisticated and encompass many elements of human insecurity. In particular, individuals can be exposed to insecurities at home and business places due to break-ins exacerbated by thieves desiring to make an economic gain from other people’s possessions. Societies may suffer from violence cases where people use force to benefit from limited resources. These factors can overlap to a national and global scale and manifest in terms of civil conflicts as people engage in terrorism actions that threaten peace and stability at of nations.
Counter Measures to Human Insecurity
Counter measures to human insecurity involve dealing with the broad and overlapping challenges to the human dignity, livelihood, and survival. The primary approach to human security is prevention, which deals with the original conditions of defenselessness, directs the spotlight on emergent hazards and gives emphasis to early interventions. Prevention seeks to embolden local abilities to formulate stability, and supports remedies that promote respect for human rights and prestige and uplift social cohesion (Holm, 2017). Individuals can embrace preventive measures by securing their homes or places of business by means of different security measures, such as locking doors and installing surveillance systems.
Furthermore, people need to be empowered by enabling them to build their resilience by expanding the capacity to make sharp choices and being involved in designing and implementing remedies to guarantee their safety. The security of individuals and the community can be empowered by the enactment of laws and instituting authorities mandated to ensure there is law enforcement (Stekic, 2018). Individuals and communities can also engage the services of private security providers, such as private bodyguards and security guards at community residencies. At a national or international level, states can create police forces to take charge of homeland security while the military can be tasked with enforcing homeland defense.
References
Stekic, N. (2018). The 4th international academic conference on human security — “Human security and new technologies.” European Journal of Human Security, 2, 93–96. Web.
Holm, N. (2017). Local actor strategies for achieving human security functioning. Journal of Human Security, 13(1). Web.