About

This Website is dedicated to the modern concept of Human Security, in which national security is put into its rightful perspective as merely one component of the complete picture. This Website also celebrates and supports the complex Web of people who are (sometimes unknowingly) making this possible.

The Human Security Index (HSI) was first publicly released at the (GIS-IDEAS 2008) Conference “Towards a Sustainable and Creative Humanosphere” in 2008. A refined version (direct link to the pdf ) was published by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in 2009.

The HSI covers 200 countries (or societies), and is intended to represent the recent-to-current situation. Though presented in the spirit of the Human Development Index (HDI) it is not currently intended to become an annual publication. After all, societies rarely change so quickly . . (unless blasted by war or other major conflict, in which case good indicators are unlikely to quickly characterize such change) . .

“They said it couldn’t be done.” But here is a human security index, with profound thanks to the individuals and groups who

1. Collected and shared increasingly perceptive, comprehensive, and useful datasets; others who
2. Crafted and shared indicators on a diversity of topics related to overall human security; and others who
3. Helped to formulate and enhance concepts of how human security itself could be characterized.