Empowerment and Protection: Stories of Human Security (2014)

This book shares and analyses people's sense of threats and safety through the lens of human security. Spanning six regions of the world, it presents the accounts of people living in Afghanistan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Mexico, and the Philippines. The chapters are based on interviews with community members, leaders and activists in individual and group settings. Their words reveal the potential power of the state is a security provider through the rule of law, but also the ways the state can undermine human security through corruption, abuse of human rights, and failure to provide necessary goods and services. The stories also suggest the potential of civil society organisations to transform the citizen-state relationship and facilitate human security.

The citizen-state relationship emerges as a primary tool and indicator of human security, where context-specific protection and empowerment strategies go hand in hand. You can read the book online or download the full publication here.