1 Human Security: from National Security to Sustainable Human Development Boc V. I. 1 , 1 University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Landscape Architecture Department, Bucharest (ROMANIA) vladimirboc@gmail.com Abstract Human security is an emerging interdisciplinary paradigm, developed and debated over the last 20 years. The concept was launched in 1994, within the Human Development Report, published by the United Nations. The development of human security represents the beginning of a complex transition process from conventional security, which is deals with national and territorial issues, towards a new security approach, focused on individuals and human communities. The aim of the study is to highlight the most significant aspects regarding terminology, approaches, characteristics, dimensions and indicators of human security in order to understand the perspectives of development for this emerging concept. Another important objective consists in analyzing the report between human security and related concepts, such as human development and sustainability. The results of the research show a growing interest in human security in the academic field over the last decades. We can also note several contradictions regarding the definition of the paradigm. In general, the interdisciplinary approach, characterized by a stronger relationship with sustainability and human development, is the most common among researchers. However, there are also critics who argue that this approach goes beyond conventional security studies which are focused on the issues of violence and conflict. This fact still generates impediments in applying the concept through concrete measures, such as human security assessment or specific development policies. Keywords: human communities, human development, human security, security studies, sustainability. 1. Introduction 1.1. Emergence of the Concept The concept of human security, focused on the security of individuals and human communities, appeared in the mid-1990s in the field of security studies and international relations. Till the end of the Cold War, security studies specialists were concerned about national security, a traditional approach, centered on the safety, territorial integrity and national interests of states. The emergence of the concept was driven by the need to redefine the concept of security as a result of acknowledging the importance of individual security and multiple threats to people's lives. In 1994, in the Human Development Report, published by the UN (United Nations), the human security term appears for the first time as a need for a new integrated approach to security [1]. In 2003, the UN Commission on Human Security reiterated the importance of redefining security and then a number of researchers from representative institutions, such as the Copenhagen School, "criticized the usefulness of national security in an internationalized world" [2]. Ioana Leucea believes that human security "challenges the notion of state-centric security by focusing on the individual as a reference object of security" [2]. Nowadays, along with the development of human security, there is a tendency to broaden the sphere of knowledge in the field of security to different areas, such as: economic, social, cultural, environmental, health etc. [3]. The emergence and development of the human security paradigm represents the beginning of a transition process in the security studies from a conventional exhaustive approach, focused on the political -military dimension of states, towards a complex multidisciplinary approach of human security. Over the last two decades, many international organizations such as WHO (World Health Organization), World Food Program, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the World Bank have supported and funded research projects in the field of human security.