Security as Freedom in the Quest for the Value of Human Life: A Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

This article attempts to demonstrate that the problem of national and human security is a product of deficits arising from the governance in nations wherein protection, peace and well-being of the citizens are not considered to be of primary importance. The article traces the conceptualisations of security in the work of several philosophers with primary focus on Jeremy Bentham to propose an alternative conceptual analysis of security as „freedom from evil‟. In examining several parameters of social progress, the authors offer a critical evaluation of current security practices. They propose that the security practices have failed to achieve stability and viability in several nations because of the conceptual gap between understanding security as founded on the social-philosophical principles of human value and dignity, and the current conceptualisations of security, prevalent in most nations, as a mechanism of inducing fear and driven by hunger for power, egoism, crass military might and brute force.