Read the passage and answer the questions:
All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals. However, there are differences about precisely what threats individuals should be protected from. Proponents of the ‘narrow’ concept of human security focus on violent threats to individuals or, as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan puts it, “the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence”. Proponents of the ‘broad’ concept of human security argue that the threat agenda should include hunger, disease and natural disasters because these kill far more people than war, genocide and terrorism combined. Human security policy, they argue, should protect people from these threats as well as from violence. In its broadest formulation, the human security agenda also encompasses economic security and ‘threats to human dignity’. Put differently, the broadest formulation stresses what has been called ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’, respectively.
Broadly speaking, human security calls for-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Freedom from fear and freedom from want
Option (1) Freedom from fear and freedom from want — Correct. In its broadest formulation, human security stresses ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’.
Option (2) Freedom to use terrorist tactics in diplomacy — Incorrect. Terrorism is one of the threats human security protects people from.
Option (3) Freedom to perpetuate inequalities for power — Incorrect. Human security protects individuals; it cannot call for inequality.
Option (4) Freedom to accumulate nuclear arsenals — Incorrect. Weapons belong to the security of states, not of individuals.
NCERT (2025-26): “Non-Traditional Notions … All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals. However, there are differences about precisely what threats individuals should be protected from. Proponents of the ‘narrow’ concept of human security focus on violent threats to individuals or, as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan puts it, “the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence”. Proponents of the ‘broad’ concept of human security argue that the threat agenda should include hunger, disease and natural disasters because these kill far more people than war, genocide and terrorism combined. Human security policy, they argue, should protect people from these threats as well as from violence. In its broadest formulation, the human security agenda also encompasses economic security and ‘threats to human dignity’. Put differently, the broadest formulation stresses what has been called ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’, respectively.” |