Gretchen Peters (journalist)

Gretchen Peters in an author and a leading authority on transnational organized crime. She is the Executive Director of the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime (CINTOC), an operational think tank focused on the intersection between transnational organized crime and national security. She is also the Executive Director of The Satao Project, a consulting firm that supports governments and industries to counter serious organized crime and corruption, and their convergence with terrorism, violence and social unrest.

Peters has conducted extensive research on the intersection between transnational organized crime and national security, from drugs and money laundering to wildlife and timber trafficking. Her work has directly shaped U.S. National Security policy and, after her book was published, she had the rare opportunity to advise U.S. military and diplomats in Afghanistan. She has an extensive experience investigating organized crime networks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Mexico.

Peters was previously Senior Fellow on Transnational Crime at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University, School of Public Policy. She also co-chaired an OECD Task Force working to improve policy approaches to fight the trafficking of wildlife and other environmentally sensitive goods. Currently, Peters serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Convergence

Wildlife, Drugs, and US National Security

In 2015, Peters traveled to Africa with The Satao Project to study ivory supply chains in Tanzania and Kenya. Her work zeroed in on “a regional ecosystem moving ivory, drugs and guns … a matrix of different organisations that collaborate to move illegal goods along the Swahili coast.” She quickly identified the underlying problem: corruption. “If there’s a network that is moving illegal goods from one country to another, there are inevitably government officials involved, protecting them or looking the other way,” she said. Since then Peters has continued focus on the intersection of wildlife, narcotics, and U.S. national security interests, being cited in multiple articles, briefs, and documentaries.

Terrorism and Drug Trafficking

In 2009 Peters published Seeds of Terror: How Drugs, Thugs, and Crime Are Reshaping the Afghan War. In the book, Peters argues there is a deepening relationship between the Taliban and drug traffickers. "They start to look more like Tony Soprano and his guys than holy warriors," Peters said in an interview with CBS News. "They behave like criminals. They're involved in the drugs trade, human trafficking, kidnapping, gun running…all sorts of criminal activity." Peters spent five years researching the book, interviewing insurgents, drug kingpins, government officials, and poppy farmers. She discussed the book in a June 2009 appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Since 2009 she has worked as a consultant to the U.S. defense and law enforcement communities. She has supported U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counter Narcotics and Global Threats in understanding and analyzing the links between conflict and organized crime. In 2010 Peters published a paper about the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based militant group, with West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center and in 2012, Peters testified before the U.S. Congress about the Haqqani network. She has delivered presentations on her work for the Pentagon, the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, Special Operations Command, the Navy Seals, more than a dozen think tanks and universities, and for thousands of U.S. servicemen and women deploying to Afghanistan.

Early Years

Education

Peters has a BA from Harvard University and a Masters in International Relations from the University of Denver's Korbel School of International Studies. At the Korbel School, she was the receiptent of the Sié Chéou-Kang security and diplomacy fellowship and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers Life's Choices Foundation Scholarship.

Journalism Career

Peters began her career as a journalist, helping to start The Cambodia Daily newspaper. She then went on to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade, first for the Associated Press and later for ABC News. Peters was nominated for an Emmy for her coverage of the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto and won the SAJA Journalism Award for a Nightline segment on Pervez Musharraf.

Publications

• Seeds of Terror; How Drugs, Thugs, and Crime Are Reshaping the Afghan War
• The Curse of the Shiny Object; How Humans Fight Problems Where They Are Visible, and Why We Need to See Beyond
• Haqqani Network Financing:The Evolution of an Industry
• How financial power can be used to save iconic species from extinction
• Crime and Insurgency
• Incorporating Law Enforcement Interrogation Techniques on the Battlefield
• Illicit Afghan and Pakistani Power Structures with a Shadowy but Influential Role