Globalization constitutes a direct challenge to the preservation and expansion of human security. By “human security” I mean “safety from the constant threats of hunger, disease, crime, and repression” and “protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of our daily lives—whether in our homes, in our jobs, in our communities, or in our environment” (UNDP, 1994, p. 3). The meaning of human security articulated by the United Nations is also expressed in the concept of “ontological security” articulated by Anthony Giddens: “the confidence that most people have in the continuity of their self-identity and in the constancy of the surrounding social and material environments of action” (Giddens, 1991, p. 92).