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them with direct costs as well as externalities from security actions) much like contemporary tax cuts for
the richest members of society are said to ultimately benefit everyone.
Today, the idea that the economy is a national security issue has become a truism within the field. For
example, Stephen Walt has repeated the earlier observation that economics matters in so far as it
contributes to military capabilities and the maintenance of hegemony (Walt 1991). On the other hand, the
Iraq Invasion has been framed by some analysts as representing anything from a return to imperialism to
a post-imperial act that defines a new and fluid transnational ‘Empire’. Yet, while it is not surprising that
connections are being made between national security doctrines and economics given the historical
embedding of the concepts in dominant cognitive interpretations of real politik , what is far more
interesting is how conceptions of human security, even when directly appealing to neoliberal organizing
principles–such as in the case of the Japanese human security agenda– have been positioned as arising
from outside of political economy. What factors have contributed to this divorce and what are the political
consequences?
Human Security and (Neo)Liberal Thought
When the first publicly declared conception of human security was presented by the United Nations
Development Programme in its 1994 Annual Report, its rejection of the standard operating procedures
that shaped Cold War dynamics was considered revolutionary. Primarily, the UNDP argued that security
policies should take individuals as their referent object rather than the state; therefore, security policy
must reflect an underlying interest in human life and dignity rather than geopolitical gain. Human security
was presented as being a universal concern that was able to transcend borders with its inter-dependent
components including economic security, food security, health, security, environment security, personal
security, community security, and political security. Moreover, in contrast to the mirror-reaction policies of
the Cold War, the UNDP argued that the focus of human security is to prevent insecurities rather than
addressing these problems after they have manifested.
Convention