The science of human security

During the 1990s medical studies using public health methodologies about injury and death due to weapons in conflict began to appear in the medical literature. The 1990s was also the period when the concept of human security was materialising in the development and humanitarian communities. Nowadays it is common for global organisations, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and academics to conduct scientific studies of human security. Many such studies gather evidence about human insecurity and these in turn lead to policy recommendations pertaining to improving human security. The data-to-policy process applies in this domain. In this article we propose that conceptual developments in human security and methods which generate scientific evidence of human security or insecurity have combined to create a new science: the science of human security. We describe key problems inherent in this new multidisciplinary science, some unique methodological challenges and new scientific opportunities.