My story in Foreign Policy co-written with Ketan Joshi: Clean Energy Tech Needs Secure, Moral Supply Chains
Articles in Foreign Policy
How prohibited cocaine is destroying Honduras
Foreign Policy has published an adapted extract on Honduras from my book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs. I’ve updated and slightly expanded some details about a country that’s suffering more than most from the US-led drug war. Honduras is a key transit country for South American cocaine. PDF here: In…
Blackwater founder Erik Prince making moves to exploit minerals in conflict zones
My story in US publication Foreign Policy: The founder of the military contractor Blackwater, Erik Prince, has a new project. He’s aiming to raise $500 million to invest in the discovery, exploitation, and delivery of resources required to produce electric car batteries. Minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and copper are mostly found in conflict zones…
What Duterte's brutal drug war looks like in the Philippines
My investigation in Foreign Policy: MANILA, Philippines — The murdered man lay in a pool of his own blood. At around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, two men on motorcycles shot Manny “Buddy” Wagan outside his small shop selling junk metal just outside Manila. He was killed instantly with two bullets to the head. A…
How Guinea-Bissau became a cocaine smuggling hub
My investigation in Foreign Policy: BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — The headquarters of the Judicial Police, the government agency charged with prosecuting Guinea-Bissau’s war on drugs, sits on a dusty street in the middle of this deceptively quiet West African capital city. Inside is the country’s only drug-testing laboratory, a recent addition thanks to a surge in…
Ongoing failures to hold South Sudanese war criminals to account
My article in Foreign Policy: In the middle of a hot, clear day on Aug. 21, roughly 2,000 people packed around the John Garang Mausoleum in downtown Juba to shout down the latest deal to end South Sudan’s nearly two-year-long war. Organized by the government, it was an event for true believers, those somehow insulated…
Civilians in South Sudan bearing brunt of cruel war
My feature in Foreign Policy: BENTIU, South Sudan — Every day, some 200 people stream into Bentiu, the site of South Sudan’s largest camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Women trudge past armed U.N. peacekeepers while carrying large pots and bags on their heads and tiny children in their arms. They sit on the cracked…