Human and national security: a relation of contradiction or commonality?

The human security literature helps refocus attention on human beings but seems to assume that the state is separate from society. The article seeks to rectify this deficit. It combines Marx’s ontological and epistemological insights with a realist analysis of the state, in order to restore both human agency as the sole driving force of history and the state as polity. It argues that national and human security inheres in the social evolution of humans, for they stand in a relation of commonality with one another. They are made by humans for humans and for human purposes.