Human Security Programmet (HSP)

The Human Security Program at the University of Tromsø, in coopeation with the Canadian Embassy in Norway, the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) and endorsed by GECHS (Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project) offers researchers and students the opportunity to learn about and work with the growing field of security studies, particularly the debates regarding new and widened definitions of security.

Canada and Norway have both played important roles in the development and use of the human security concept. In 1998 these two countries signed the Lysøen agreement on human security.

One of the central points of the Lysøen agreement was cooperation on arctic and northern issues. We take this point as the springboard for our work at the Human Security Program. The main research project of the program is "Human Security in the Arctic", an international cooperation between Norwegian and Canadian researchers. See the links on the right for more information.

The concept of human security was popularized through the UNDP Human Development Report 1994, which defined human security as 'freedom from fear, freedom from want'. Since then many states, NGOs and academics have been working with the concept, refining it, narrowing it, widening it - no agreement on one definition exists to date.

The Human Security Program hopes to contribute to these debates on human security, and security in general, in the following ways:

1. Encourage research projects that explore possible and practical definitions of human security and security generally speaking, making use of diverse theoretical frameworks such as western, non-western, indigenous feminisms, enviromentalist theories, and other sociological, cultural, anthropological approaches;

2. Encourage research that makes use of such definitions within diverse case studies, including the identification and use of the concept in different contexts such as in northern and/or arctic regions, as well as encourage cooperative comparative work between the global north and south;

3. Offer courses, workshops, seminars on diverse themes pertaining to human security;

The Human Security Program currently consists of three main reseachers,and a number of master degree students.

This website is still a work-in-progress, and is updated regularly.

Please address comments and/or questions to:

Gunhild Hoogensen, HSP Researcher
Research Associate of AINA
Department of Political Science
University of Tromsø
9037 Tromsø
tel. +47 77645593
fax. +47 77644905
mob. +47 97145942
epost. gunhildh@sv.uit.no