Around twenty-five years ago the widespread use of child labor in the cocoa industry was first brought to the attention of the global North. Since this realization, much has been published on the severity and prevalence of child labor within the cocoa industry, especially in the West African countries of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. However, very little has been published to explain this practice in relation to colonial structures. This thesis will contribute to the discourse by first analyzing the colonial systems established by the British in Ghana and the French in Cote d’Ivoire, then drawing parallels between the extractive activity during colonial times to the continued abuse of West African people and resources by corporations today. After Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire gained independence, neocolonialism in the form of the IMF and World Bank ensured their economic dependence on transnational corporations from the Global North. Poverty and food insecurity rose, producing conditions in which child labor became normalized. Multinational chocolate corporations continue to take advantage of these predatory trading practices and economic oppression. In my thesis I will explain the colonial beginnings of the cocoa industry, identify child labor as a consequence of the colonial and capitalist system, and discuss the inadequacies of international organizations and laws in addressing child labor to analyze why the exploitation of children continues to persist.

Since the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have shaped global economic policy, with the promise of promoting global growth and prosperity. However, their interventions in developing nations through Structural Adjustment Programs and trade liberalization policies enforced by the World Trade Organization have often resulted in economic exploitation of the global south rather than development. Case studies of Venezuela and Bolivia demonstrate how IMF policies systematically dismantled prosperous, growing economies, creating dependency on Western markets while prioritizing capital accumulation over human welfare. This research explores alternative frameworks for equitable economic development. 

The study proposes "delinking" as a viable alternative, a strategic reorientation toward domestic needs and cooperation among developing nations rather than subservience to imperial economic centers. China’s success with the Belt and Road Initiative validates delinking's potential. On the other side of the globe, The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) exemplifies the delinking approach through regional infrastructure development, alternative banking systems like the New Development Bank, and grassroots initiatives that prioritize local participation. By analyzing ALBA's achievements in Latin America, this research argues for reimagining globalization as a people-centered system focused on welfare and participatory development rather than profit extraction, offering a roadmap for developing nations to achieve genuine economic sovereignty.

This thesis aims to demonstrate how global pressure of the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement reshaped India’s pharmaceutical industry. This institutional shift, a key feature of neoliberal globalization, led to narrowed access to affordable, life-saving medicines and revealed the profound injustices embedded within the structure of global governance. Globalization, and thereby WTO-driven patent regimes, consistently disregard health and human rights in the Third World. The poorest members in society are left to bear the largest burden. India’s strong generic industry once served as a model and supplier for the developing world. The country’s success was marked by its ability to legally reverse-engineer patented drugs via process patents, which led to unprecedented price reductions, most famously demonstrated by ARVs supplying that transformed the global HIV/AIDS crisis. The amendments to the 1970s Patents Act paved the way for the decline of India’s pharmaceutical industry. The inherent power dynamic embedded in institutions like the WTO, which were effectively designed and advocated for by the global north, caused India to lose its generic drug flexibility to corporate greed. Cases like the Novartis Glivec patent rejection and the COVID-19 vaccine inequality are reminders that access to essential technology comes second to monetary gain for the West. India’s struggle under TRIPS is a reminder that global rules are simply policy choices. 

This thesis examines the structural and historical foundations of exploitation in Latin America and the consequences of neoliberal restructuring in the region, with particular focus on Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Situating neoliberalism as the result of longstanding imperialism in the region dating back to the Monroe Doctrine, my thesis argues that the rise of international financial institutions (like the International Monetary Fund) and the United States’ intervention in the region in the twentieth century has reshaped the region’s politics and approach to participation in the global market. Chile’s role as a neoliberal laboratory under Augusto Pinochet’s shift to Washington Consensus-informed policies moved the nation toward austerity, privatization, and deregulation—becoming the model for the rest of the region. Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis and Bolivia’s Water and Gas Wars revealed the vulnerabilities and failures of this rushed market-oriented economic restructuring. 

Moving past the shortcomings of the economic crisis in the region, this work also examines the collective resistance against neoliberalism. Through analysis of mass protests, labor mobilization, and grassroots movements, it is revealed how the neoliberal crisis generated new alternative visions of sovereignty. This project argues that neoliberalism in Latin America is not a result of hegemonic inevitability but rather consistent exploitation and domination of the region, and is consistently met with organized resistance fueled by the desire for alternative models.

This project explores how the TRIPS Agreement has affected access to medicines and vaccines in developing countries. TRIPS, created in 1995 as part of the World Trade Organization, requires countries to follow strict patent rules, including giving pharmaceutical companies twenty years of exclusive rights over new drugs. People in support of stricter patent laws argue that they encourage innovation. However, critics argue that they raise medicine prices and make life-saving treatments harder to access in lower-income countries. This research examines how TRIPS was created and how it works in practice; it will first focus on case studies in India and Jordan. Before TRIPS, India was able to produce affordable generic medicines, which helped lower global drug prices. After TRIPS required stronger patent protections, India’s ability to produce newer generic drugs became more limited. Jordan adopted even stricter “TRIPS-plus” rules through a trade agreement with the United States, which led to higher medicine prices without increasing local innovation. The project also examines the HIV/AIDS crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic to show how patent protections affected global access to treatment during emergencies. Overall, this research argues that TRIPS often benefits wealthy countries and pharmaceutical companies more than developing countries. Although public-health exceptions exist on paper, political and economic pressure can prevent countries from using them. Reforming these rules is important to ensure fairer global access to medicines in the future.

Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) are a set of policies put in place to help correct trade imbalances and government policy deficits, often enforced when a country seeks a loan from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. SAPs, however, have adverse effects on countries’ economies, as patterns of further imbalances are observed, including increased inequality and the loss of resources. SAPs require transparency of the country’s economic data and enforce certain policies through economic reforms, one of which is reducing subsidies or support for the people of these countries. As a result, inequality, violence, and poverty are on the rise. The country’s economic sectors are being opened to foreign markets with liberalization as the goal. Whether enforced on a diverse economy like Kenya or a pastoral economy like Somalia, SAPs have caused these countries’ debts to worsen , pushing them into a debt trap that prevents industrialization and economic growth. To ensure that a country experiences a stable economy, the focus should be shifted to support its people’s needs. Bringing awareness and learning from this process can bring about more efficient ways to help a country’s economy. SAPs standardized are used in various economic structures and often negatively impact country development.