Oxford University Press, Sachbücher, Human Security Report 2005: War and Peace in the 21st Century (Englisch, Human Secu...

Since the end of the Cold War, armed conflicts have increasingly taken place within, and not between, states. Boundaries between political and criminal violence are becoming increasingly blurred, while the very definition of "security" is undergoing radical change. Today, security is about theprotection of communities and individuals from internal violence as well as the defense of borders against external threats. It is this focus--on the individual rather than the state--which distinguishes "human security" from "national security." National security is about protecting the state human security is about protecting people. Both should be mutually reinforcing, but secure states do not necessarily mean secure citizens. During the last 100 years far more people have died at the hands of their own governments than have been killed by foreign armies. Despite the fact that morethan 90% of armed conflicts now take place within, and not between, states, most governments and mainstream security research institutions continue to focus on national, as opposed to human, security. National security remains important, but in a world in which interstate war is the rare exceptionthere is a need for a new and very different global security audit. The Human Security Report will address this need. Modeled on the UN's Human Development Report, the Human Security Report will provide an annual mapping of the incidence, intensity, causes, and consequences of global violence and policy responses to that violence. Each report will carry a series of essays focusing on a thematic issue. The theme ofthe first issue will be "War in the 21st Century." These essays will explore the emergingconsensus about the causes of what is now being called the "New War" and the increasingly blurred distinction between criminal and political violence in many parts of the world. The UN, the World Bank, theOECD, the G7, and an increasing number of donor states now accept.