How Does the Concept of ‘Human Security’ Travel Beyond the Core? The Politics of Theorizing Human Security in Türkiye

This paper examines how human security as an analytical concept has traveled beyond Western Europe and North America. Human security analysis is vital in other parts of the world, such as Asia. This article questions the political implications of the concept and theoretical construct of human security used in academic studies. While previous research has focused on the political-normative aspects of the theorization of human security, these studies have ignored the political implications of international understandings of the theorization. The study shows that a hierarchical understanding of the international shapes the political repercussions of theorizing human security beyond the core. It does so by using Edward Said’s notion of traveling theory. The study analyses studies on human security published by scholars from Türkiye between 2017 and 2023, most of which focus on the refugee issue. Google Scholar and Türkiye’s national academic databases (ULAKBİM and Dergipark) are used to collect data, and a detailed content analysis of the articles is conducted. This content analysis reveals how the subject, actor, and reference object of human security are defined in the analyzed studies while revealing international understandings. As a result, the study shows how introducing the concept of human security in Türkiye, due to the international understanding of these studies, often excludes the region’s people and their security concerns, thus preventing change. This finding is crucial as it shows how a top-down perspective on human security is prominent among scholars outside the core.

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