Response to the 2023 Human Security Policy Forum

ABSTRACT

The February 2022 UNDP Special Report (SR) on Human Security, “New threats to human security in the Anthropocene: Demanding greater solidarity” marked a welcome return by the UN body to the field in which, in 1994, it had provided the seminal text. The SR stimulated a great deal of academic and policy debate, featuring prominently in the HDCA Human Security Thematic Group’s sessions at the 2022 HDCA Antwerp conference. Conversations between the UNDP HDRO and HDCA led to the 2023 Human Security Policy Forum published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. The papers produced in this forum have emphasised a broadening of the human security discourse and policy prescription to consider the SR’s additional focus on the Anthropocene, agency, and solidarity. Several of the papers have also drawn attention to the interconnectivity of threats and spillover between them. While there is consensus among the papers on these issues, they are limited in the extent to which they address how such foci also lead to contestation, how they are situated in the wider policy discourse, and how they might best be operationalised. This paper revisits these discussions, adding additional insight on these points of reference.

KEYWORDS:

• Human security
• UNDP Special Report
• anthropocene
• agency
• solidarity
• spillover

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brendan M. Howe

Brendan M. Howe (Ph.D. TCD) is Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, where he has worked since 2001. He currently also serves as the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association. He has previously held research and teaching positions at the East–West Center, Hawaii, Freie Universität Berlin, De La Salle University, Manila, the University of Sydney, Korea National Defense University, Georgetown University, Trinity College Dublin, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. He researches on traditional and non-traditional security in the Indo-Pacific, human security, governance, and comprehensive peacebuilding. He has published over 100 related books, articles, and book chapters.