An evidence-based framework for NATO’s human security approach

At the 2022 Madrid Summit, NATO adopted the ‘Human Security Approach and Guiding Principles’. Identifying human security as an ‘essential tool’, NATO has sought to integrate human security across the organisation to shape all of NATO’s core tasks. However, NATO’s 2022 Approach lacks depth, with underdeveloped principles that do not make clear the evidence base, the unique nature of the concept of human security, or how it can be the differentiating factor that produces NATO’s intended outcomes. This article discusses NATO’s emerging shift to a human security approach and provides a framework of human security based on six evidence-based principles that provide additional depth and clarity to NATO’s approach. The framework can be used by NATO and its personnel, such as Human Security Advisors, Military Police and CIMIC officers, to develop the military contribution to human security (MC2HS).