John Sewell is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Most of the world's population is poor; and half of all the people on earth are desperately poor. This is a fact that holds enormous implications for the minority of which is well off. For the existence of so many in such a state of deprivation is, ultimately, a security matter. John Sewell argues in this conversation that America should dramatically upgrade its help to poor nations, for their sake and for ours.