Abstract
Shannon Beebe and Mary Kaldor argue in their book that we need to focus on human security to fix contemporary conflicts. They explain there is a security gap that needs to be filled; they now believe, after years of experience that if we would implement basic necessities in most developing countries (where many inner-state conflicts concern religions, ethnicities and such,) crises in the world would diminish. The human security approach the authors propose is the protection of individuals as opposed to the state, nuclear disaster, natural disaster, famine etc. If this were to happen in the U.S, we would expect to be saved and fixed. We need to extend this domestic security to a global security.
In other words, they argue that poverty and lack of resources engender limitation on political rights, which then engender the rise of possible physical violence, threats and insurgencies. Water, shelter, education and health should be given to all humans on earth and we, the big powers, can do this. Focusing on economic, political and physical needs and rights of people is human security. They include in their definition of human security, natural disasters and such. The book illustrates Human security as a new concept to create peace in the world. The use of hard power, as the U.S is known for, is today inadequate with the change in the nature of conflicts. This new era started after the Cold War; in fact inter-state conflicts, which were considered the worst are almost inexistent today.
