Human Security Field

The Fletcher School’s interdisciplinary curriculum allows students to develop the theoretical and practical skills necessary to respond to today’s global challenges.  For those students interested in the inclusive protection and promotion of well-being of civilians and their communities, Fletcher offers the Human Security and Humanitarian Affairs field of study. The concentration rests at the intersection of human rights, conflict analysis and resolution, development studies, and humanitarian studies, and employs multiple analytic frameworks, including history, anthropology, gender studies, sociology, and psychology. It highlights the overlaps and interactions between these dimensions in order to bring together the concerns and practices that deal with the many faces of, and close relations between, freedom from fear and freedom from want.

The Human Security and Humanitarian Affairs field of study offers a wide range of interdisciplinary courses; a non-exhaustive list can be found below. Additionally, students may opt to pursue one of three specialization tracks within the concentration: Humanitarian, Migration, or Conflict and Political Violence. More information about field requirements can be found here.  

For more information on other areas of specialization at Fletcher, please visit the fields of study pages. 

Course offerings in the human security field include:

  • ILO L210: International Human Rights Law
  • ILO L213 International Criminal Justice
  • ILO L214M Transitional Justice
  • ILO L216 International Humanitarian Law
  • ILO 217 International Law and Migration
  • ILO L224 Peace Operations
  • DHP D202 Contemporary Critical Theory on International Issues
  • DHP D207 Religion and Conflict in International Relations: Policymaking Assumptions, Analysis and Design
  • DHP D213 International Humanitarian Response 
  • DHP D223 Theories of Conflict and Conflict Resolution
  • DHP D231 Gender and Human Security in Transitional States and Societies
  • DHP D232 Gender, Culture and Conflict in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
  • DHP D234 Humanitarian Leadership: The Political and Policy Challenges of Being in Charge
  • DHP D235M Overview of Research Methods
  • DHP D237 Nutrition in Complex Emergencies: Policies, Practice and Decision-making
  • DHP D238 Current Issues in Global Immigration Policy
  • DHP D239 Forced Migration
  • DHP D240 Children, Violence, Protection and Resilience DHP D241Climate and Migration
  • DHP D242 Famine, Livelihoods, and Resilience: Food Security Analysis and Response in Crisis
  • DHP P202M Security Sector Reform: Conceptual and Contextual Debates in Peacebuilding
  • DHP P207 GIS for International Application
  • DHP P221 Memory Politics: Truth, Justice, and Redress
  • DHP P222 Development Aid in Policy and Practice
  • DHP P225 Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation of Peacebuilding and Development Programming
  • DHP P228M Advanced Evaluation and Learning in International Organizations
  • DHP P246M Civil Resistance 
  • DHP P293 Democracy and State Reform in Latin America
  • DHP P295 Introduction to Human Security
  • DHP P297: Engaging Human Security
  • DHP P298: Conflict in Africa
  • EIB B230 Managing NGOs and Social Enterprises 
  • EIB E241: Development Economics: Policy Analysis