Development Without Democracy: The Authoritarian Consequences of Dismantling USAID
Nature abhors a vacuum. So does geopolitics. Most Americans believe that foreign aid consumes nearly a quarter of the federal budget. In reality, it has historically accounted for less than 1 percent. This widespread misconception is precisely what made it politically possible for the United States to decimate its primary development agency overnight with little […]
The Financialization of Conflicts in the 21st century is a Threat to U.S National Security
Prior to the 1990s, defense contracting looked very different than it does today. During the Vietnam War, Korean War, and Cold War, the building of arms remained in the hands of multiple smaller defense contracting companies. By the end of the Cold War as U.S military spending reached over $325 billion annually, lawmakers began to […]
Police, Prisons, and Premature Death in Black America
The United States is confronting a disturbing reality: the criminal legal system has become one of the most consequential forces determining who survives long enough to grow old. New evidence shows that the greatest threats to Black Americans’ life expectancy are not solely medical, but structural. Where policing, incarceration, and environmental injustice converge, premature death […]
When Oversight Ends: What the Decline of Federal Consent Decrees Means for Police Reform
Introduction In March of 2015, following the death of Michael Brown and the subsequent uproar surrounding his death, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted an extensive investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. At the conclusion of their investigation, the DOJ released a 102-page report, citing several instances of racial bias among police […]
The Price of Innocence: Emotional, Financial, and Legal Costs of Wrongful Convictions
Wrongful convictions demonstrate one of the most apparent signs of injustice in the United States. A wrongful conviction occurs when someone is found guilty of a crime they did not commit, often after being targeted in ways that are shaped by systemic bias. For African Americans, wrongful convictions are not rare accidents; they instead happen […]
Weaponizing Humanitarianism: the Geopolitics of U.S. Foreign Aid Distribution
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the United States’ duty as a leader on the global stage was to “make the world safe for democracy.” His bold vision set a powerful precedent for US intervention globally while defining an era in which the United States could position itself as a moral force in international […]
Imperialism: The Driving Force Behind Police Militarization in the U.S.
In 2020, police departments across the US deployed widespread militarized response in light of the nation-wide Black Lives Matter protests. Policing in the US has become increasingly militarized, with the War on Drugs serving as a major catalyst. The War on Drugs, a government-led initiative to fight illegal drug distribution and use, led to policy […]
Reentry Isn’t Freedom: The Black American Struggle After Incarceration
American policing was never a neutral institution; it was born from systems designed to control African Americans. Slave patrols, first organized in the 1700s, enforced curfews, hunted for enslaved people who ran away from their masters, and terrorized enslaved populations, embedding racial control into the very foundations of law enforcement. Even after slavery ended, these […]
The Future of Federal Injunction Power and Birthright Citizenship in Trump’s America
Over the past decade, federal courts have consistently challenged executive branch actions. Most recently, the narrative has changed and the constitutional authority of the federal courts to stifle the executive orders has been questioned. While the Constitution does not directly articulate the presidential right to issue an executive order, the United States has a long […]
An American Spin on Oliver Twist: Trump-Vance Administration’s Dismantling of Aid for Homeless Students
“We know, Heaven help us, that the best and fairest of our kind too often fade in blooming” – Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist What to do With Homeless Youth Our federal government’s perspective has long been for homeless Americans to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and secure their places as productive members of society. […]