Description
At the 2022 Madrid Summit, NATO adopted its ‘Human Security Approach and Guiding Principles’. Identifying human security as an ‘essential tool’, NATO sought to integrate human security across the organisation to shape all of NATO’s core tasks. However, NATO’s 2022 Principles lack depth and do not make clear the unique nature of a human security approach as the differentiating factor that can produce NATO’s intended outcomes. This paper discusses NATO’s shift to a human security approach and crucially provides a unique conceptual framework of human security based on seven detailed principles that can be utilised by NATO to shape and guide the development of a human security approach across its force structure. Ultimately, NATO can use this conceptual framework to influence a new way of conceiving and implementing the cross-cutting topics within the military to deliver an improved picture of the human environment, act preventatively, and support multilateral engagement with a range of actors such as humanitarian agencies, the UN, and regional organisations.
