Paradigms in conflict - The contested claims of human security, critical theory and feminism

Proponents of human security paradigm, in emphasizing the individual as the fundamental referent of security and in highlighting the non-military sources of threats to security, strongly claim a paradigm shift from the state-centric realist paradigm of security. The article disputes this, arguing that the claim for a paradigm shift from the traditional realist security paradigm is by no means new in security studies or International Relations. The basic issues that the human security paradigm brings into focus have already been well elaborated by critical theorists and feminist scholars in International Relations emphasize human emancipation through transformation of the existing rich-dominated unequal global and national power structures. Moreover, the human security paradigm shares some of the basic assumptions of the realist paradigm of security that undercut its claim of newness in contemporary security studies and International Relations.