CHANGING SECURITY PARADIGM – HUMAN SECURITY CHALLENGES: WAYS AHEAD FOR BANGLADESH

Abstract

Traditionally the concept of security has been state and military centric. Particularly, the Cold War era formed an enigmatic political and psychological atmosphere in which security used to be defined in military parlance only. The demise of the Cold War has brought a paradigm changes in security thought process. Today, nations have realigned their security focus on the security of citizen rather than the state. Thus, the concept of ‘human security’ has taken the centre stage of the security milieu. Human security focuses on the core aspect of people i.e. their ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’. It involves survival, empowerment and dignity of people. Bangladesh is a developing nation with numerous legitimate human security concerns. The perilous human security conditions prevail in almost all spectrum of economic, political, environmental and social structure of the country. Evidently, both of the driving spirits of human security i.e. ‘freedom from fear’ and ‘freedom from want’ is yet dwelling far distant across-the-board in Bangladesh. The mapping of the prevailing human security conditions revels that both the ‘want’ and ‘fear’ dimensions of human insecurities dominate Bangladesh’s human security landscape. In ‘freedom from want’ dimension, the economic insecurity looms large followed by food security, health security and environmental security. The human security domain of ‘freedom from fear’ in Bangladesh general revolves around political and societal insecurities. To negotiate these perilous human security threats, the study delineates a comprehensive approach for Bangladesh covering entire spectrum of individual, organisational and state echelons. Individual needs initiative to develop capacity building, search for alternative source of income generation, and innovativeness to develop economic capacity. The culture of accountability, transparency and corruption free regime should be imbedded in concerned organisations. The state governance should be citizen friendly, self-less and in all true sense carry the democratic spirit to eradicate ‘want’ and ‘fear’ factors from the citizen’s perception. Good governance should prevail in Bangladesh for sustained human security effort and to fortify the national security perspective of the country as a whole.