Is everything a security issue?

The title of this essay suggests a growing dissatisfaction with the inclusion of more and more issues into contemporary security studies. We have entered an era of political science where traditional security studies have been challenged by a much broader concept, which has come to be known as Human Security, examining the role of non-traditional threats on the security of individuals. In this essay, I will firstly look at the traditional concept of security and examine its criticisms. I will then introduce the notion of Human security and consider the, in my view, most important nontraditional additions to security, namely environmental degradation, poverty and health care. I will lastly consider the criticisms of a broader notion of security before arguing that extending security to include the aforementioned threats is necessary to address adequately the root causes of global insecurity, which should be the basis of any security studies. Following the end of the Cold War and the end of certainty that came with it, many academics saw security as essentially under-conceptualised (Hough, 2004). Many criticised the orthodox security concept for its realist view, which states that the nation-state acts as referent object of security and that their motivation is the appropriation of military and economic power, rather than the pursuit of ideals or ethics. Thus, policies within this state centric view are intended to meet the requirements of nation states, as well as its institutions and values, rather than the interests of individuals or mankind as a whole. Even today, some commentators still argue that military threats are bigger than ever in the post Cold War era, exempt from the military balance of power, which, for decades, had ensured state and individual security (Hough, 2004). However, even if these threats were bigger nowadays, they certainly are not the only menace to the lives of people all around the world. Environmental destruction, poverty, famines and diseases are huge threats to the lives of millions of people all around the world. Thus, a new concept of security had to be developed. This however proved to be quite difficult, because although few today actually defend the traditional, narrow, state-centric definition of security, there is no real consensus on what a more broadly constructed conception should look like (Buzan, 1991). Today, most consider security from a global perspective rather than only from the perspective of individual nations and the idea of common security. More recently, analysts, following the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 1994 Human Development Report and their notion of security as "freedom from fear and want" (Hough, 2004), have settled on the phrase “human security” to emphasise the people-centred aspect of these efforts. Thus, human security takes the individual as primary referent and concentrates on how to best protect them. Emphasis is put on bringing about the well-being of individuals and responding to the people's needs in dealing with sources of threats. Furthermore, human security studies aims to not only find means to protect the nation from external aggression, but also to safeguard it from a range of menaces, such as environmental pollution, infectious diseases and economic deprivation. Having looked at the need to introduce a new concept of security, I will now examine the, in my view, most important challenges to the individual’s security today, namely the environment, poverty and health-care. The threat caused by environmental degradation seems less clear-cut and direct than most other dangers to human life. Thus, the potential threat of global warming and ozone depletion appears far-off,