Gwendolyn Connors

Feeding the People: What Has Lead to the Global Food Crisis?

Rising global food prices do not only threaten the lives of individuals but threaten the political stability of entire regions. High food prices have been cited as one factor behind the current instability in Africa and the Middle East, and a spike in food prices this year risks the potential of even more widespread problems.[i] […]

Public Security in Private Hands: American Intelligence Goes Corporate

In 2006, under considerable pressure from the public to provide information about the use of tax dollars in matters of national security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) conducted the first comprehensive study of the use of private intelligence contractors since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Alarmingly, it found that […]

Bitter Sweets: The Problem of Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry

Ten-year-old Madi, whose family cannot afford to send him to school, spends his days hacking away at cocoa pods with a machete. Such conditions are common in the Ivory Coast’s farms where 43% of the world’s chocolate is produced. Although United States chocolate companies passed a protocol to get rid of “the worst forms of […]