Prevention and Human Security - From Protecting the State to Protecting the Person

Abstract

The concept of Security has for a long time been seen in rather narrow terms. "Security" was mostly seen as "security of the state", mainly as security from external aggression. Thus, "security" and "defense were frequently seen as almost identical terms, and "security policy" as almost identical with "defense policy". This concept of "external security" had a corresponding term in "internal security". It meant to protect the state not only from external threats, but also against threats from within. This referred to actions which would have had their origins within the State and its society, and would have threatened the very existence of the state, or at least of its political system. Almost parallel to this development of widening the understanding of security beyond the level of the State to the international level, so to say "above" the level of the individual State, the understanding of security also began to widen to a "lower" level, namely increasingly towards the security of the individual human beingodine This process went in parallel to the changed understanding of the role of the individual person, where the concept of "human security" has got its origins.