Human Security: Concepts and Measurement

The notion of Human Security has regained traction in the public domain, mostly following the disruptive impact of the global pandemic and the geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe. The concept, however, was molded during the second half of the twentieth century, as scholars, policy makers and the public became ever more disillusioned with the focus on national security that dominated the public domain. The pressing issues of climate change, health challenges and human rights violations in the 21st century have resulted in elevated policy attention and resources for these issues in the form of targeted reports, concepts, metrics, empirical and theoretical research. Having said that, the introduction, monitoring and implementation of the SDGs within the UN 203o Agenda is inherently related to the concept of human security and its components This paper attempts to briefly summarize the methods and concepts of the reports germane to human security and its classifications. In addition, we provide an initial conceptual mapping of the proposed measures to the Sustainable Development Goals. The process provides ample fodder for future research on the interlinkages between human security measures and all 169 targets within the SDGs using up-to-date machine learning techniques.