The individual plays an essential and fundamental role in the safeguarding of human security. Although counterintuitive, the root of national, international, and transnational change truly does rest in the ability of the individual to recognize the humanness of others. The U.N.’s Chief of Human Security acknowledges that “what we as individuals think is right” – our moral compass – is reflected in the moral atmosphere on an international level. Individuals are the most basic building blocks of the global community, and the moral health of the global community is only as good as that of its parts.

Ting Chiu '11 and other students in a Lafayette course on Human Security as a Global Public Good traveled to the United Nations, where they spoke with Kazou Tase, chief of the Human Security Unit of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and experienced exhibits on the genocide in Rwanda, the role of drums in slavery, and landmines and explosive remnants of war. Chiu is a double major in psychology and English. Originally from Hong Kong, she resides in Bedminster, N.J.

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