Publication of a New Book: “Human Security and Empowerment in Asia: Beyond the Pandemic”

This edited volume revisits the comprehensive framework of human security and development by examining the protection–empowerment nexus applied to vulnerable groups and populations adversely affected by the pandemic.

While the conventional human security literature has focused on top-down protection, this book offers new perspectives on human security by exploring bottom-up empowerment from theoretical and practical perspectives. Through eight case studies from Southeast Asia and Japan, the contributors to this book demonstrate the importance of empowerment in achieving human security, focusing on the responses of vulnerable groups and communities to the multiple threats compounded and exacerbated by the pandemic.

This book is the outcome of a research project, “Human Security and the Practices of Empowerment in East Asia,” conducted by the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. This volume is available in Open Access format.