Abstract:

This paper will focus on human security, as a new and very important tool of measuring development, stability and the level of democratic consolidation, especially in developing countries. During the last two decades the concept security has broaden, from a state-centric to a more human-centric approach: from state security to road security (safety), economic security, environmental security, food security, respect for human rights etc. Therefore, this dramatic change needs to be reflected also in a new educational approach towards this phenomenon. On the other hand developing a human security approach might be useful in building development and political strategies, as demonstrated by the adoption of a Human Security Index in a lot of western countries. In order to provide a geographical focus for our analysis, we will have chosen the case of Albania and the way to promote this new concept into the educational system at the secondary educational level as well as in a more advanced university level. It is our argument that it will be a crucial base for a sound development of every strategy involving all actors. In order to achieve its aim, the paper will develop a methodology of building a Human Security Index (HSI), based on some previous models, but elaborated further to take account of the peculiarities of the Albanian case. The HSI will serve as a periodical point of reference for stakeholders, policymakers and education actors. Therefore, it will become very important in the current conditions of political, economical and institutional processes of Albania, on its difficult road of stabilizing a functional democracy. This democracy should fundamentally be oriented towards serving the welfare and wellbeing of its citizens. Our scientific attention will be directed towards assisting and promoting a system proactive and not reactive of the human security concerns of its population. Thus, we propose a bottom-up approach of security, on that will focus on human security, trying to build more tangible results on the main pillar, recipient, and consumer of security in a contemporary democracy, which is the citizen. For this reason, one of its main aspects will be to properly explain the parties involved the concept and practice of human security. It will build in the future a more demanding social community on this regard, creating more pressure on policymakers and educational institutions to properly evaluate all respective strategies from their human security perspective.

Keywords:

Human security, human development, security education.