Shaping Security Beyond Arms: The Quad and Human Futures in the Indo-Pacific
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/fb_ijcss.2025.1.2.16Keywords:
Human Security, Quad, Indo-Pacific, Non-Traditional Security, Climate Governance, India, USAAbstract
In contemporary world politics, non-traditional security has emerged as a significant concern, with threats posed by terrorist networks, drug cartels, civil wars, maritime piracy, and environmental degradation. Human security functions as a core analytical lens for understanding these non-traditional security (NTS) challenges. The Quad was established in 2004 to coordinate humanitarian efforts related to tsunamis. It has since expanded its agenda beyond strategic-security cooperation to embrace human-centric priorities. By addressing health, climate resilience, disaster relief, and digital empowerment, the Quad increasingly reflects human-security principles within its Indo-Pacific strategy. This study clarifies key concepts such as “human futures,” defined as the long-term safeguarding of social, environmental, and technological well-being, and “climate governance,” referring to collaborative mechanisms for managing climate risks. Using human-security and climate-governance lenses, the study evaluates the Quad’s initiatives through the criteria of effectiveness, inclusiveness, and long-term resilience. Conducted through qualitative, descriptive, and analytical methods based on secondary data, the study addresses three questions: (1) how non-traditional security challenges have reshaped the Quad’s evolving agenda; (2) how human-security principles are incorporated into its regional initiatives; and (3) how these initiatives perform in terms of effectiveness, inclusiveness, and long-term resilience. The paper argues that the Quad’s expanding engagement with non-traditional security contributes to the emergence of a more human-centric Indo-Pacific order.
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