Cherian, Zach

Sophomore, College of Science and Health

Major: Health Sciences (Concentration in Bioscience)

Minors: Applied Psychology, Bioethics and Society

Certificate: Global Fluency

Honors Course: HON 201: States, Markets, and Societies

Faculty: William Denton, Department of Political Science

Abstract: In his paper “To Be or Not To Be? Neutrality is the Question”, Zach investigates the inception, significance, controversy, and history of the largest humanitarian medical organization in the world: Doctors w/o Borders, or more globally known as MSF. Beginning his process with their history, the project provides a very detailed exploration of the entire journey of MSF, from its humble beginnings as a grassroots community to the center stage of the world’s NGOs. As an organization which serves countless peoples, groups, and cultures around the world, MSF has been at the forefront of horrific wars, crimes against humanity, famine, environmental disaster, and much more. Despite their great contributions, the ever-globalizing world has placed MSF in the bullseye of controversy, a matter which has threatened MSF’s core strengths: independence, freedom, and neutrality. It is Zach’s great fear that MSF and organizations like it are being forcibly withdrawn from their policy of neutrality; a move which would claim the death of humanitarianism as we know it. In this paper, he reaches the conclusion that MSF is utterly critical for unbiased, untethered protection from the world’s crises. Organizations with such outreach, actionable neutrality, and ability to push through the most demanding of struggles, merit immense support from the world, and even deserve chartership as an independent beneficiary of the United Nations.