Human Security

The world’s most pressing security problems – from pandemic response to climate-related migration, poverty alleviation, nuclear proliferation, cybersecurity, and political unrest require global perspectives and solutions.

We guide policymakers and educate students in understanding and developing approaches to address the interconnected issues related to human security and diplomacy.

Faculty Spotlight

Gustavo Flores-Macias wearing a navy suit standing in front of a stone stairwell

Gustavo Flores-Macías

Professor

Gustavo Flores-Macías’ research and teaching focus on two main areas of political and economic development: 1) the politics of economic reforms, especially taxation, and 2) crime and policing, with an emphasis on the militarization of public safety.

His most recent book, Contemporary State Building: Elite Taxation and Public Safety in Latin America, studies how institutionally weak governments can get the wealthy to shoulder a greater tax burden. In addition to serving as Cornell’s Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs, he is the editor of The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America and the author of After Neoliberalism? The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America, which won the Latin American Studies Association Tomassini Award in 2014.

Course Spotlight

International Human Rights

Course details: This course will address major challenges in international human rights law, policy and practice. Specific topics include children’s rights, women’s rights, LGBTQI+ rights, the rights of refugees and migrants, the rights of people with disabilities, the rights of minorities and freedom from discrimination, freedom from torture, the right to life, the death penalty, modern slavery, and the right to sustainable development. We will also discuss the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations with respect to human rights, as well as the impact of actions (and inactions) by states and institutions in the “Global North” on the realization of human rights in states in the “Global South.”