Covid-19: A Human Security Analysis

ABSTRACT From a human security perspective, the concept and practices of security should be oriented around the everyday needs of individuals and communities, whatever the source or nature of threat they may face. Human security has lost some momentum as an intellectual project as a result of its imprecise definition and scope. In addition, in policy terms, human security has been eclipsed by a resurgence of geopolitical visions of security, reinforced by a rise in nationalism and great power rivalry. Yet Covid-19 demonstrates how human security brings added value as an analytical and normative framework. The pandemic exposed the limitations of the traditional security paradigm and it demonstrated that traditional measures of national security are no assurance of societal resilience or individual protection. Moreover, from a human security perspective, Covid-19 exposes the structural inequalities and contradictions which underpin norms of security in many societies, given that experiences of security and insecurity are shaped by gender, socio-economic inequalities, and ethnicity.