1st Edition
State Responses to Human Security At Home and Abroad
The aim of this book is to analyse why and how states respond to human security, both at home and abroad.
Although states still define security as "the defense of territory" from military attack, increasingly security pertains to the protection of human beings from violence. This violence can emerge from rebels, drug traffickers, terrorism, and even environmental and demographic changes. While previous literature in this field has provided rich empirical detail about human security crises, it is generally quiet about how states respond to these crises.
State Responses to Human Security fills this lacuna by bringing in concepts from international security studies and focusing on states’ perceptions of power and the changing nature of human security. Instead of debating whether or not human security exists, the authors in this volume agree that human security has been redefined to include policies associated with violence toward individuals and groups, and draw on recent events in the Middle East, China and Mexico to understand how and when human security issues prompt state responses and affect international relations. The case studies analysed in this book suggest that states respond to human security threats differently, but in both the domestic context and abroad, power and perceptions matter greatly in shaping states’ reactions to human security concerns.
This book will be of much interest to students of human security, foreign policy, international relations and security studies in general.
Foreword 1. Human Security Revisited 2. Unrest, Subversion, Repression and Human Security in China 3. A Hostile Environment? Lessons about Environmental Security from Post-Soviet Central Asia 4. Mexican Governors: The Nation’s New Viceroys 5. When to Hold and When to Fold: Assessing and Responding to Political Uprisings in Authoritarian Regimes 6. "Mexi-Stan": Human Security along the US--Mexico Border 7. Human Security and Human Rights for Detainees: The Effects of US Policy after 9/11 8. International Norms And Human Security: Libya, R2P, and the Humanitarian Intervention Consensus 9. The Future of Human Security: Taking Advantage of a States-First World 10: People, Power and the Arab Spring: Individual Wellbeing and Political Instability 11. Conclusion: The Emerging Picture of Human Security
Biography
Courtney Hillebrecht is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2010).
Tyler R. White is a lecturer in International Politics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Patrice C. McMahon is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is also the author/editor of three previous books, including, most recently, Statebuilding and the International Community (Routledge, 2012).
