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and democratic' state, is the purveyor of security to the people (such as Canada,
home to many communities that live without many of the benefits extolled by
human security; Green and Voyageur 1999; Deiter and Rude 2005; Slowey,
and Irlbacher-Fox et al ., this topic). Most importantly, recognizing diverse,
multi-levelled and multi-actor security perspectives increases awareness about
the origins and effects of such insecurities, allowing for early treatment, if not
outright prevention, of escalated conflict. Security has to mean more than
'treating' conflict, genocide and other large-scale violence that are allowed to
happen precisely because other securities were ignored at earlier stages or in
other contexts.
In the discussion above I present an argument for the importance of per-
ceiving security multi-dimensionally, reflecting the fact that individuals
feel insecurity in a variety of ways, allowing for the immediate treatment
of emergency threats, and not ignoring other features of security, thereby
working on prevention simultaneously. The end result is a holistic view of
security, moving towards the vision of those like indigenous women that
recognizes threat in circumstances assumed by elites to be threat-free or rela-
tively benign (such as the environment and identity). Security can be seen as a
dynamic relationship contributing to a process, rather than a static condition.
Within a dynamic relationship it is possible to visualize many factors that
influence security, from the social relationship between the individual/col-
lectivities to the state and global networks/organizations, to other influential
dynamics such as hegemony and sovereignty, 'developed' and 'undeveloped'
or 'underdeveloped', secular and religious, and so on. These are all dynam-
ics contributing to the security conversation. This is a process because the
dynamic is continuous and always in motion. State security can and should
not be ignored because it is a part of this conversation, but other dynamics
and realities cannot be excluded.
Conclusion
If human security only means security from open armed conflict or war, there is,
at least in recent history, admittedly little shared experience between the global
North and South (although war in the global North does occur, albeit less fre-
quently and taking place in locations of the 'other' such as Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya and Mali). There is no denying that violent conflict and war poses an
enormous security threat upon individuals and communities and requires the
productive attention of the global community. However, there are a great
many insecurities that can be identified that occur well before open conflict
becomes the result, largely due to poverty and inequalities. Particularly when
seen through the lenses of gender and indigenous experiences, there are many
shared human security concerns between the North and South that are rooted
in identity, poverty and other security threats relevant to local contexts, local
environments. A broadened definition of human security includes immediate,
 
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