In the new millennium, there is a growing realization that the concept of security can no longer be confined to the narrow landscape of the military-strategic concerns of the state. The focus is increasingly shifting to ‘human security’, which centers on ordinary people and their security needs. This conception encompasses a broad and comprehensive realm that includes military as well as economic, political, environmental and cultural security. In the age of globalisation, political boundaries count for little: the pursuit of security is affected by linkages between the local, the national and the global. The state is still central, but is both art of the problem and part of the solution. It is at once the biggest violator of human security and the primary instrument for the attainment of a secure existence for its citizens. The extent to which the state attends to people’s security needs ultimately depends on its accountability to the public, which in turn depends on the effective functioning of democracy. In South Asia, the expanded people-centric conception of security is gradually finding voice. Yet the older elitist notion of security remains well entrenched within the power structure of state and society. In this volume, eminent scholars from the region break out of the mould and draw attention to the diverse facets of security from the standpoint of the average South Asian man, woman and child. They explore vital security issues relating to economic well-being, ethnic identity, religion, gender and political legitimacy. In doing so, they seek a more comprehensive and democratic basis for the understanding of security in the region.
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