How drugs have always perverted human wars

My Guardian book review appears this weekend: In October 2015 a Saudi prince was arrested at Beirut international airport accused of trying to smuggle… nearly two tonnes… of the… amphetamine drug Captagon… through the country. Two months later, Lebanese officials claimed to have confiscated 12 million Captagon pills heading to the Gulf. The synthetic drug, invented in 1961, has…

How little we know about the Western war against ISIS

My story in the Guardian: We don’t know whether the Australian military has killed or injured civilians in Iraq, and if so, how many. Since Canberra joined the US-led mission against the… Islamic State (Isis) on 8 October 2014, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has provided barely any information about its operations. So the new report…

Too little to celebrate in South Sudan

My article in Le Monde Diplomatique English: The UN Security Council recently imposed new sanctions on South Sudan including travel bans on six South Sudanese citizens. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, praised the move saying: “The Security Council took strong action in support of a peaceful end to the conflict in South Sudan…

Punishing migrants is a sure way towards greater unrest

My weekly Guardian column: Surely bombing yet another Muslim country is a mistake. But that’s exactly what Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni has called for – attacks on Islamic State (Isis) positions in Libya to stem the flow of refugees streaming into Europe. Calls for tough action, like Gentiloni’s, are growing in response to refugees…