Drugs & Crime

Watch List

Four countries in big trouble.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Stealing Colombia's Criminals

How extradition is ruining Latin America's courts, robbing victims of justice, and undermining the drug war.

BY MICHAEL REED-HURTADO | JUNE 18, 2010

Why the Vietnamese Don't Want to Go to Rehab

Drug treatment in Southeast Asia is brutal, exploitative, and practically worthless.

BY JOE AMON | MAY 28, 2010

We're All Swedes Now

How the world caught up with Stieg Larsson.

BY ANDREW BROWN | MAY 26, 2010

Jamaica's Coke Rebellion

U.S. demands for the extradition of a notorious gang leader have exposed an island paradise as a violent narcostate teetering on the edge of chaos.

BY ILAN GREENBERG | MAY 26, 2010

Sri Lanka Rejects War Crimes Accusations

Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris tells FP that an International Crisis Group report accusing his government of intentionally killing civilians is "nebulous" and shrouded in a "veil of secrecy."

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MAY 25, 2010

Time to Speak up on Military Abuse in Mexico

When Felipe Calderón comes to Washington this week, his army's troublesome human rights record should be front and center.

BY JOSÉ MIGUEL VIVANCO | MAY 17, 2010

Creating New Soldiers in Mexico's Drug War

How U.S. drug policy is making Mexican cartels more deadly.

BY MARCELO BERGMAN | MAY 17, 2010

Guinea's Economic Junta

A year and a half after a military coup, Guinea will hold its presidential election in June. The man in charge may change, but the army's domination of lucrative mineral contracts won't.

BY DINO MAHTANI | MAY 14, 2010

Lawyers vs. Pirates

As if catching pirates weren't hard enough, now we have to figure out what to do with them. And no, they can’t all just walk the plank.

BY J. PETER PHAM | APRIL 30, 2010

Why Can’t Anyone Stop the LRA?

One of the evilest rebel armies in Africa has been kidnapping children and brutally murdering civilians for 20 years despite constant international efforts to wipe it out. Why?

BY MICHAEL WILKERSON | APRIL 19, 2010

Africa's Cyber WMD

Think that Russia and China pose the biggest hacking threats of our time? The virus-plagued computers in Africa could take the entire world economy offline.

BY FRANZ-STEFAN GADY | MARCH 24, 2010

Dancing for Their Lives

Making an undercover visit to an Iraqi expat nightclub in Syria, where the refugee crisis's illicit economy is on full display.

BY DEBORAH AMOS | MARCH 9, 2010

Iraq's Elected Criminals

Some of the very people involved in kidnapping my father from his home three years ago might be elected to office on Sunday. Iraq can do better.

BY ALI AL-SAFFAR | MARCH 4, 2010

Uribe Checks Out

Washington's most reliable ally in Latin America, the Colombian president, is on his way out. That's a good thing.

BY ADAM ISACSON | MARCH 4, 2010

China's Hacker Army

The myth of a monolithic Chinese cyberwar is starting to be dismantled. A look inside the teeming, chaotic world that exists instead -- and that may be far more dangerous.

BY MARA HVISTENDAHL | MARCH 3, 2010

Burma's Oscar Moment

Forget Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and all the rest for a minute. Here's the story of the film that deserves to win big.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | MARCH 3, 2010

A Light at the End of the Tunnel in Congo

Yes, it may look like the worst hell on Earth. But there are signs that the decades-long resource war in Central Africa could be shifting for the better -- if only the West stops bankrolling it.

BY JOHN PRENDERGAST | FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Planet War

From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most.

BY KAYVAN FARZANEH, ANDREW SWIFT, PETER WILLIAMS | FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Mixed Metaphors

Why the wars on cancer, poverty, drugs, terror, drunk driving, teen pregnancy, and other ills can't be won.

BY MOISÉS NAÍM | MARCH/APRIL 2010

Does Israel Have an Immigrant Problem?

Thousands are flocking to the Jewish state for work. But increasingly, they are becoming a political football.

BY EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN | JANUARY 25, 2010

What's Spanish for Quagmire?

Five myths that caused the failed war next door.

BY JORGE G. CASTAÑEDA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Obama's Indecent Interval

Despite the U.S. president's pleas to the contrary, the war in Afghanistan looks more like Vietnam than ever.

BY THOMAS H. JOHNSON, M. CHRIS MASON | DECEMBER 10, 2009

Latin America's New Cold War?

Venezuela's and Colombia's ambassadors to the United States tell their sides of an increasingly tense story.

BY BERNARDO ALVAREZ HERRERA, CAROLINA BARCO | DECEMBER 8, 2009

Interview: Roy Bennett

The white archnemesis of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe speaks out about the terrorism charges against him, the country's flailing power-sharing government, Mugabe's misdeeds, and why he may well have to die for his cause.

BY LAURA WELLS | NOVEMBER 23, 2009

My Nights With Hamid

The world is hounding the Afghan president to crack down on corruption and kick out entrenched warlords. I don't think he's going to do it, and I should know: I’m the man who wrote his autobiography.

BY NICK B. MILLS | NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Think Again: Africom

U.S. Africa Command was launched to controversy and has been met with skepticism ever since. Behind two years of mixed messages, a coherent mission might finally be emerging. Here's what you need to know about the world's next U.S. military hub.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | NOVEMBER 17, 2009

Calm Down, Chávez

War-mongering Venezuela is stirring up trouble down south again. But will he really go to war with Colombia this time around?

BY MICHAEL SHIFTER | NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Chávez’s Covert War

Obama needs to call Venezuela’s president what he is: a terrorist and a drug-trafficker.

BY OTTO REICH | AUGUST 28, 2009

You Ain't Seen Pirates Yet

The disappearance of the Arctic Sea highlighted the growing problem of piracy -- and demonstrated that the world's navies can't stop the coming surge of attacks.

BY J. PETER PHAM | AUGUST 21, 2009