Douglas Farah

Douglas Farah is an internationally recognised expert on transnational organised crime, illicit financial networks, authoritarian influence and geopolitical risk, with particular expertise across Latin America.

Over a career spanning more than four decades, Doug has advised governments, defence organisations, think tanks and multinational companies on complex security challenges, including organised crime, extra-regional state influence, illicit finance and emerging geopolitical threats.

From 2013 to 2022, Doug served as a subject matter expert at the US National Defense University, where he led a multidisciplinary team mapping transnational criminal networks and the activities of extra-regional actors across the Western Hemisphere. His work informed senior decision-makers across the US Department of Defense, intelligence community and wider interagency.

Before this, Doug spent more than 20 years as an award-winning foreign correspondent and investigative journalist with The Washington Post, reporting from conflict zones across Central and South America and West Africa. His reporting covered civil wars, organised crime, illicit financial networks and the trade in conflict diamonds and gold.

Doug is a frequent speaker at universities, government institutions and international conferences, and has testified before the US Congress on 15 occasions. He has authored numerous academic studies on organised crime, security and geopolitical risk, as well as two widely respected books: Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror and Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible (with Stephen Braun).