Susan Helms is a former NASA astronaut and retired member of the United States Air Force. During her time in the military, Helms flew over 30 different types of aircraft and received four Legion of Merit awards and three Defense Superior Service medals. She also holds the record for longest space walk and spent over 5,000 hours in space. She retired in 2014 with the rank of lieutenant general and now serves on the Wilson Center Board of Trustees. What did she learn over the course of such a distinguished career, much of it spent miles above the ground?

A working paper by Eoin Mcguire (Brown University) and Marshall Burke (Stanford University) examines the impact of food price increases on conflict in Africa. Under the hypothesis that negative income shocks contribute to the outbreak of conflict, the authors compare the effect of significant increases in food prices in communities that predominantly produce food to the effect in those that predominantly consume food. In food producing areas, conflict driven by food surplus allocations increased but conflict driven by territorial factors decreased.

As the international community looks to the Paris climate agreement and beyond, a key question emerges: Will strong ethical arguments or pragmatic national interest lead to a safe and sustainable future? Can these two perspectives coexist? [Video Below]