This is a post from The Human Security Angle: the newsletter of the Master’s Programme in Human Security at Aarhus University.

Simone, why did you decide to study human security at Aarhus University?

After my Bachelor’s in International Studies and European Institutions at the University of Milan, I decided to give a Scandinavian nuance to my education. Among all the other MSc I applied to, Aarhus University was the only program providing a completely new perspective on security, differentiating itself from the other national security-oriented programs in Europe. This unique program allows students to enlarge the security approach through a holistic framework, assessing global challenges in a comprehensive way.

Moreover, Denmark, Aarhus’ social life, and Aarhus University’s prestige was crucial for my final decision: This experience was key to enriching my knowledge and building up a resilient network of friends and colleagues.

Where did you do your work placement, and what did you learn?

I decided to do my work placement in Rome, since I am Italian, and I speak the language. My personal challenge was to bring human security into the vibrant Italian political cloud, starting to sow this new concept into policy-makers’ social environments. I managed to pursue my goal with Mediterranean Hope, a project of the NGO Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), which created a legal airlift between Lebanon and Italy in order to guarantee to Syrian refugees’ better life conditions.

Among all, this experience allowed me to understand the complexity of bureaucracy in migration, both regarding Italian and European regulations. Additionally, I witnessed the centrality of the national security approach applied by the Italian state on Syrians refugees: This peculiarity dragged me to focus my thesis on the selection process of refugees, analysing the project’s security approach.

Lastly, I concretely realized how much human security could have differently shaped the project since its beginning stages, guaranteeing a better security framework for all of the stakeholders.

What are you doing at the moment?

Since September this year, I decided to keep on pushing my agenda of trying to bring human security into politics, since I believe that decision makers need this tool to better address global and European challenges. That is why I enrolled in a new pan-European party gaining the position of City Lead of Aarhus.

What have you taken with you from your Human Security studies?

The Human Security programme allowed me to understand that challenges and risks are always correlated within each other; stakeholder management is often the key to unlock greater and better interventions on specific issues; sustainability and resilience are crucial for every project; and teamwork is the very nature of the human security approach.

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