Individual and Societal Dimensions of Security

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of state-based approaches to security studies during the Cold War, alternative ways of thinking about security—focusing on the individual and society—also developed during this time period. However, in the post-Cold War era the primacy of the state in considerations of security has come under increasing challenge from a variety of perspectives. In this essay, the development of the study of individual and societal dimensions of security is traced and discussed against the background of the end of the Cold War. The first part of the essay examines the evolution of thinking about individual and societal dimensions of security during the Cold War. The second part focuses on the post-Cold War revival in thinking about these aspects of security. The essay concludes by considering the future of world politics conceived of as a “risk society” and the implications for individual and societal dimensions of security.