Kathi Lynn Austin is an internationally recognized expert on arms trafficking, peace and security, and human rights. She is founder and Executive Director of the Conflict Awareness Project, an international nonprofit that investigates, exposes, and brings to justice major arms traffickers, war profiteering networks, and transnational criminal operations that fuel war and conflict around the world.­ Ms. Austin is also a research fellow with the Human Rights Center at University of California Berkeley and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime, the Forum on the Arms Trade, and the Explorers Club. ­

 

For nearly 30 years, Ms. Austin has carried out original, precedent-setting and in-depth field investigations into the illegal trade in weapons, illicit trafficking operations, illegal resource exploitation, transnational crime and terrorism. She has documented conflicts spanning Africa, Latin America, East and Central Europe, and South Asia. In 2011, she was named the Arms Control Association’s “Person of the Year.”

 

Ms. Austin served with the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC and Liberia as well as Chief of the Joint Mission Analysis Centre for the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions in Timor-Leste and Burundi.

 

As a lead investigator, advisor and senior consultant, Ms. Austin has not only served with the United Nations but a broad array of multi-lateral institutions and non-governmental organizations, including the World Bank, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, the Fund for Peace, and the Open Society Justice Initiative, where she served as Senior Advisor for the Anti-Corruption Program. 

 

Even prior to founding CAP, she was an influential and accomplished public speaker, writer and filmmaker. She has presented at major fora and conferences around the world, and has contributed articles and op-eds in an array of top international publications and news media.

 

Her award-winning documentaries include Killing Tradition: The Arming of Africa (2002); Forsaken Cries: The Story of Rwanda (1997); and Africa: Environmental Degradation, Human Deprivation (1994). In 2012, she starred in A Short Film About Guns (winner, 2013 Tribeca Film Festival).

 

Her publications include Illicit Arms Brokers: Aiding and Abetting Atrocities (The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 2002); A Colombian Arms Deal, and The Perils of Blowback (Washington Post, 2002); Arms Trafficking, Closing the Net: A Test Case for Prosecution Under the US Law on Arms Brokering (Fund for Peace, 2001); The Illicit Gun Trade: Fanning Flames of Conflict (Washington Post, 1999); Hearts of Darkness (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 1999); Controlling Light Weapons Trafficking In The Great Lakes Region of Africa (1999); Stoking the Fires: Military Assistance and Arms Trafficking to Burundi (Human Rights Watch, 1997); Rearming with Impunity:  International Support to the Perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide (Human Rights Watch, 1995); Rwanda’s Next Nightmare (Washington Post, 1994); Invisible Crimes: U.S. Private Intervention in Mozambique (Africa Policy Information Center, 1994); and U.S. Foreign Policy Towards South Africa (Chadwick Healey project team, 1991).

 

As an expert, she has appeared on diverse media outlets as ABC Nightline, CNN World News, BBC (TV and Radio), ITN (UK), German National Television, Al Jazeera, National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Observer (London), Weekly Mail and Guardian (South Africa), and De Morgan (Belgium). 

 

Ms. Austin holds memberships in the following professional organizations: Pacific Council on International Policy (LA); Forum on the Arms Trade (DC); Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (Vienna); and The Explorer’s Club (NYC).

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Ms. Austin's full CV is available upon request.

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