All tarred with the same brush

Abstract

The ongoing situation in Afghanistan highlights the deadly implications that the convergence of security and development can create. The article argues that prior to the current focus on the security-development nexus, the convergence was first evidenced by the creation of human security. The article reviews the power relationships involved in the processes that have affected understandings of security and development in the process of the creation of human security. By investigating how the securitisation process operates with regards to human security, the ongoing convergence of security and development will be made evident. The implications for humanitarian workers in Afghanistan will be used to highlight that a clearer delineation is needed between security and development, both in discourse and in practice.