Human Security and the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was ignited by an undeniable human security goal of achieving freedom from want, freedom from fear and freedom to live in dignity. This article analyses how human security concerns have figured in the Arab Spring and shaped its course. It makes two related arguments: firstly, that the pro-democracy forces, long deprived of basic human rights and freedoms, rose up against their authoritarian rulers to qualitatively change their human rights and security conditions; and secondly, that the NATO-led foreign intervention in Libya, to apparently aid the pro-democracy movements, has been counterproductive and has done a great disservice to the human rights and security goals of the Arab people.