Human Security—A View Through the Lens of Complexity

Abstract

Figures compiled by the Department for International Development (DfID) suggest that between 50000 and 100000 people, more than half of them children under five, died in the 2011 Horn of Africa crisis that affected Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The US government estimates separately that more than 29000 children under five died in the space of 90 days from May to July last year. The accompanying destruction of livelihoods, livestock and local market systems affected 13 million people overall. Hundreds of thousands remain at continuing risk of malnutrition (http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-dangerous-delay-horn-africa-drought-180112-en.pdf, ). The threats to human security are multiple, complex and interrelated and often mutually reinforcing. The complexity view of the human security domain facilitated by Actor Network Theory (ANT) is supported by methods of network analysis and computational simulation that highlight how dynamic networked strategies associated with human security require a continuing process of inquiry, adaptation and learning. Through this analysis emerge critical insights regarding human security policy and the shaping of interventions.