Internationale Politikanalyse International Policy Analysis Mary Kaldor, Mary Martin and Sabine Selchow Human Security: A European Strategic Narrative Human Security refers to the security of individuals and commu­nities, expressed as both‘freedom from fear’ and‘freedom from want’. Intolerable threats to Human Security range from geno­cide and slavery through natural disasters, such as hurricanes or floods, to massive violations of the rights to food, health and housing. The adoption of a Human Security concept, first proposed by the Barcelona Report of the Study Group on European Security Capabilities, 1 would represent a qualitative change in the con­duct of European Union foreign and security policy. It would be particularly apposite as the EU seeks to improve its effectiveness and visibility as a collective global actor, and to articulate a dis­tinctive European Way of Security. 2 Terms do matter and Human Security is not simply a‘leitmotif’ for EU security policies, 3 or an Mary Kaldor, Mary Martin and Sabine Selchow are the Convenor, Co­ordinator and Assistant, respectively, of the Human Security Study Group. All three authors are at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics, where Professor Kaldor acts as director. 1‘A Human Security Doctrine for Europe: the Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities’, presented to EU High Represent­ative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, Barcelona, 15 September 2004, http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/2securitypub.htm 2 See‘A European Way of Security: the Madrid Report of the Human Se­curity Study Group’, www.lse.ac.uk/depts/global/studygroup/studygroup. htm 3 Sascha Werthes and David Bosold,‘Caught between pretension and sub­stantiveness: ambiguities of Human Security as a political leitmotif’, in Tobias Debiel and Sascha Werthes(eds), Human Security on foreign policy agendas, changes, concepts and cases(Duisburg: Eigenverlag, 2006). analytical label that categorises the EU’s international role in the way that concepts such as normative power 4 or civilian power 5 have done. Rather it provides an ongoing and dynamic organis­ing frame for security action, something which is currently ab­sent from European foreign-policy texts and practices. For this reason, Human Security can be seen in terms of a pro-active strategic narrative which has the potential to further EU foreign­policy integration. The language of Human Security is important because it deals with the concept as a cognitive framework for how policy-makers and the European public view and articulate issues of external security. This is necessary in order to help us to know what we mean when we talk about the ideas, values, interests and goals of EU external relations. Recent debates about the semantics of the‘Global War on Terrorism’ or whether what is going on in Sudan should be called genocide, reveal an acute political sensi­tivity towards policy terms and labels. In a Europe of 27 member states, concepts can help us to reach common understandings and expressions of issues. Besides, the practice of Human Secu­rity deals with how this doctrinal concept translates into action, and whether it is useful in guiding the actions of policy-makers, planners and experts in the field. 4 Ian Manners,‘Normative power Europe: a contradiction in terms?’, Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, Working Paper 38/2000. 5 Francois Duchene,‘Europe’s role in world peace’, in R. Mayne(ed.), Europe tomorrow: 16 Europeans look ahead(Fontana, 1972). FEBRUARY 2008