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.
The phrase “freedom from fear” includes:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → War, genocide and terrorism
Option (1) War, genocide and terrorism — Correct. In the passage, ‘freedom from want’ goes with economic security, and ‘freedom from fear’ with protection from violence such as war, genocide and terrorism.
Option (2) Government’s Policy formulation — Incorrect. Making policy is not a threat that people need to be free from.
Option (3) Macdonalisation — Incorrect. McDonaldisation is a cultural effect of globalisation: cultures buying into the dominant American dream. It is not a violent threat.
Option (4) Cultural hegemony — Incorrect. Cultural hegemony means the domination of one group’s culture and ideas over others. It concerns culture, not violence.
Note: The concept in Option (4), ‘cultural hegemony’, is not in NCERT (2025-26); it is explained here for the benefit of the students.
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.” |