Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the rise and fall of the idea of human security within the related fields of development and international studies. Human security is analysed as a product of the so-called development-security nexus. While the Cold War origins of the nexus are briefly examined, as a focal point of international aid policy, human security emerged in the early 1990s. Indeed, its main function was to provide a moral justification and practical guide for post-Cold War liberal interventionism. However, with the launch of the War on Terror at the end of 2001, it began to fall from fashion. Today, human security lives on as a legacy concept rather than a guide to action. As a means of mobilising international opinion and framing policy, it has been replaced by the constellation of ideas and practices associated with resilience.