In the 1990s, the two dominant strands of foreign policy–economic development and military security–became intertwined. The development and security establishments have also each undergone a period of conceptual turmoil with the end of the cold war, the recognition of highly uneven patterns of change in different components of development, and the technological and political changes often labeled globalization. One consequence has been the emergence of the concept of human security. As fostered by the United Nations Development Program, this term usually means “freedom from fear and want.” In this article, we propose a simple, rigorous, and measurable definition of human security: the number of years of future life spent outside a state of “generalized poverty.” Generalized poverty occurs when an individual falls below the threshold of any key domain of human well-being. An agenda for research and action to enhance human security follows logically from this definition in the areas of risk assessment, prevention, protection, and compensation. We propose that the academic and policy communities develop the forecasting methods and databases so that routine measurement of the average level of human security in different communities can be undertaken. We begin with some of the antecedent developments in the areas of development economics and national security that led to the emergence of the concept of human security. We conclude with a discussion of some areas of research and action to enhance human security that have been neglected and the need for closer interaction between different disciplines addressing human security, such as political science and public health.
