At the end of the Cold War, the neorealist paradigm focus on states, military security and the so-called ‘mutually assured destruction’ was challenged by the birth of a new concept, namely human security. This new concept emerged to articulate the need to focus on threats to individuals and communities and to go beyond states. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that “we will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” But what does human security mean? And how can we make it more relevant?

To learn more about human security, what must be done to achieve it and what role civil society organisations must play, we spoke to Jon Rudy. Jon is the senior advisor on human security at the Alliance for Peacebuilding and is a long-time peacebuilder with over three decades of experience in peace and conflict.

Music credit: 'Coffee Shopping' by Bruno Freitas, licensed under hooksounds.com.