The end of the cold war and international security studies: the concept of human security

Abstract

With the end of the Cold War, consolidates a new international agenda, which gives light to non-state threats to international security. In this new international environment, the emerging concept of human security that has two main aspects: keeping people safe from chronic threats as hunger, disease, repression (freedom from want) and protect them from sudden and harmful patterns everyday life, for example, of wars, genocides and ethnic cleansing (freedom from fear). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1994, focused its report on this concept, which promoted a widely internationally. Within the concept of human security issues that were covered up by the East-West conflict, become the new guidelines of the international agenda from the 90s, such as environmental problems, epidemics, unemployment, drug trafficking, starvation, ethnic and religious conflicts, terrorism, refugees, human rights violations, among others. And as these issues directly affect individuals, especially the most vulnerable populations, the concept of international security is strictly related to military issues, it becomes increasingly insufficient to explain these new international issues. On this basis, this work will address the conditions and the theoretical debates during the Cold War, which enabled the development of the concept of Human Security in the 90's. Moreover, the text will present their discussions and criticism of the proposed Human Security.