Before It Happens
The New York Times Magazine February 12, 2023
The government prosecuted Brian Lemley for threats, not violence. Is that what it takes to fight far right extremism?
The Theater
The New York Times Magazine September 4, 2022
Survivors describe the defining atrocity of the war in Ukraine.
Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv
The New York Times Magazine May 19, 2022
The war reached Kharkiv as soon as it began. The human toll was immeasurable, but the Russians never took the city.
In the Trenches of Ukraine’s Forever War
The New York Times Magazine January 16, 2022
Russian belligerence has drawn the world’s attention back to the eight-year-old secessionist rebellion in the Donbas region: a deadlocked, time-warped conflict with no end in sight.
The Fight for Philadelphia
The New York Times Magazine December 16, 2020
When the Trump campaign tried to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, Al Schmidt found himself trapped between his party and his principles.
Death in the Desert
The New York Times Magazine August 18, 2020
How U.S. policy turned the Sonoran Desert into a graveyard for migrants.
The First Smartphone War
Wired October 5, 2019
Mechanized combat and photography grew up together. In the Iraqi city of Mosul, they merged.
The Living and the Dead
The New York Times Magazine July 19, 2017
In October, Iraqi forces set out to retake Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities and ISIS’s biggest stronghold in the country. It would take them nine months and cost thousands of lives.
They Will Have to Die Now
The New York Times Magazine November 14, 2016
With the Kurdish peshmerga on the road to Mosul.
Surviving the Fall of ISIS
National Geographic October 2016
As Iraqi and coalition forces invade Mosul, the last ISIS stronghold in Iraq, the grim details of the extremist group’s rule come to light.
The Prosecutor and the President
The New York Times Magazine June 26, 2016
The International Criminal Court embodied the hope of bringing warlords and demagogues to justice. Then Luis Moreno-Ocampo took on the heir to Kenya’s most powerful political dynasty.
On the Run in Burundi
The New Yorker April 27, 2016
“Where there are people, there is conflict,” a Burundian saying goes. It has been relevant in this tiny Francophone country for as long as most of its inhabitants can remember.
The Doctor
The Atavist October 2015
Tom Catena is the only surgeon for thousands of square miles in southern Sudan. His hospital, and his life, are constantly under threat. There is no end to the carnage he must treat, and no sign of it letting up. Why does he refuse to leave?
Escape or Die
The New Yorker April 13, 2015
When pirates captured a cargo ship, its crew faced one desperate choice after another.
Dr. Machar, I Presume
National Geographic October 2014
How the world’s youngest nation descended into civil war.
Close Your Heart
Slate June 2, 2014
The Central African Republic’s sectarian civil war has divided a once peaceful nation, and pitted brother against brother.
Reconciliation Is Hard Won
National Geographic April 2, 2014
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the genocide, Rwandan villagers try to forgive the unforgivable.
Should the United Nations Shoot First?
National Geographic March 2014
The UN allowed its troops to attack armed groups in Congo, which led to the defeat of the vicious M23 militia. But the battle for Africa’s heartland is far from over.
Love and Ruin
The Atavist February 2014
There were the lovers: Louis, a paratrooper-turned-archaeologist, and Nancy, a travel writer, wife of a CIA division chief. Then there was the place: Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1960s.
The War for Nigeria
National Geographic November 2013
A bloody insurgency tears at the heart of Africa’s most populous nation.
After Westgate
National Geographic October 4, 2013
Nairobi’s Indians showed extraordinary courage during the Westgate mall attack.
Surviving Westgate
The New Yorker September 27, 2013
“Then I heard the sound,” she said. “PAH! There were three shots.”
Youssou N’Dour Has Left the Building
Departures October 2013
By 30, he was the sound of Dakar, the most listened-to musician in Africa. Now he’s mulling a run for the presidency of Senegal.
Terror At The Westgate Mall
The New Yorker September 22, 2013
When I arrived Saturday afternoon in the mall’s parking lot, policemen, AK-47s and pistols drawn, were running around, speaking into walkie-talkies. The crowd of journalists and onlookers was growing.
The Kenyatta Affair
Foreign Policy March 20, 2013
What Africa can learn from Austria’s Nazi legacy.
The Fall and Rise of Raila Odinga
Foreign Policy March 2, 2013
In Kenya’s contested election, the tortured past of family dynasty is alive but not quite well.
Vote M For Murder
Foreign Policy February 26, 2013
In Kenya, politics is the continuation of war by other means.
Debate Night in Kenya
The New Yorker February 20, 2013
Kenyan candidates are referred to in the British manner, as aspirants, but they study American campaigns, so the country’s first-ever televised presidential debate was a slick production.
The Battle for Nuba
Foreign Policy January 22, 2013
Will total war in Sudan ever cease?