F1IS 4635 - Human Security

Conventional security frameworks centered on military power have proven insufficient to safeguard people’s lives, well-being, and dignity amid pandemics, climate change, economic crises, and wars. These overlapping “poly-risks” generate cascading insecurities—economic, food, environmental, personal, and political—that cross borders and sectors. Addressing such complexity requires approaches capturing interdependence and mutual vulnerability beyond state-centric paradigms.

This course examines security through the lens of Human Security—freedom from fear, want, and indignity—at the intersection of traditional security, development, and human rights. Students will learn to define, critique, measure, and apply the Human Security framework to contemporary global challenges and policies through lectures, case studies, fieldwork among refugees, and interaction with both practitioners and communities at risk.

The course combines lectures, case studies, discussions, and interactive group exercises to highlight linkages between theory and practice in every session. It will be of interest to those interested in pursuing inter-disciplinary security research but also those interested in public policy and work in international organizations

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Critically distinguish Human Security from traditional security, development, and human rights paradigms, and articulate its conceptual and practical implications.

Analyze how Human Security frameworks can be applied to complex crises such as violent extremism, displacement, and pandemics.

Evaluate the roles and responsibilities of international organizations and states in promoting and protecting Human Security.

Design evidence-based assessments using both quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure Human Security outcomes.

Professional Skills:

Through lectures, case studies, and fieldwork, students will develop:

Analytical skills– the ability to diagnose multidimensional insecurities and link them to structural causes and cascading risks.

Programme design skills– capacity to formulate Human Security–based policies and interventions in multi-sectoral contexts.

Evaluation and research skills– proficiency in designing and conducting field research, including interviews with refugees and at-risk populations.

Communication and teamwork skills – ability to synthesize findings and collaborate effectively in group settings with practitioners and peers

Familiarity with current debates in development and security studies would be preferable.

Detailed feedback on all these assignments, including what worked and what can improve, will be sent to students within 2 weeks of their assignments due date.

An oral presentation of a refugee case study as a group exercise . 30% of the grade; PPT prepared and presented in class, during one of the sessions devoted to this.

Students will work in groups of 4-5 to identify a refugee and interview him/her to understand his/her story before migration, during transit and in the host country. Students will then present the story of the refugee using the HS perspective during the relevant session.    Hints on how to go about this exercise will be distributed, as models of presentations from previous years.  A discussion can also be organized on the ethics of interviewing refugee.

A mid-term reflective essay on applying HS to a policy area, 5-7 pages excluding the bibliography (1.5 lines), 25% of the grade, to be turned in mid-semester. The essay will be a reflective, critical perspective arguing for how the HS approach can be used for ‘better’ solutions to a policy problem of your choice. More details about what is expected from the paper will be distributed at the start of the class.

An end of term academic paper or policy project, the choice of which to be decided with the professor, to be handed in by the end of the last class, 10-15 pages excluding bibliography (1.5 lines spaces), 35% of the grade.