Human and National Security

Book excerpt: Deliberately challenging the traditional, state-centric analysis of security, this book focuses on subnational and transnational forces—religious and ethnic conflict, climate change, pandemic diseases, poverty, terrorism, criminal networks, and cyber attacks—that threaten human beings and their communities across state borders. Examining threats related to human security in the modern era of globalization, Reveron and Mahoney-Norris argue that human security is national security today, even for great powers. This fully updated second edition of Human and National Security: Understanding Transnational Challenges builds on the foundation of the first (published as Human Security in a Borderless World) while also incorporating new discussions of the rise of identity politics in an increasingly connected world, an expanded account of the actors, institutions, and approaches to security today, and the ways diverse global actors protect and promote human security. An essential text for security studies and international relations students, Human and National Security not only presents human security challenges and their policy implications, it also highlights how governments, societies, and international forces can, and do, take advantage of possibilities in the contemporary era to develop a more stable and secure world for all.