Disrupting Peace

In this episode, we connect the dots between the arms trade and personal enrichment. Paul Holden and Jack Cinamon, contributors to Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen, share who gets rich off war, how people move between positions in government and arms companies - and even work for foreign governments and militaries - and why this is a problem.

Paul Holden is the Director of Investigations at Shadow World Investigations. Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, he has over a decade of experience investigating cases of grand corruption and state capture, which is when elites gain sufficient control over the state so that they can bend it to serve their personal interests. He is the author of 6 books, including most recently: The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy. He’s also a contributing author to Making a Killing: how the West profits from slaughter in Gaza and Yemen. You can follow Paul on X @pauleholden.

Jack Cinamon is a researcher and Parliamentary Liaison with Shadow World Investigations, where he investigates issues around militarism, the global arms trade, and all the corruption that comes with it. He is also a Researcher for the Corruption Tracker, where he documents the ways that the arms trade contaminates politics on a global scale. You can follow Jack on X at @jackcinamon and on Instagram at @jack.cinamon.

This conversation was recorded on July 27, 2026.

Pre-Order the Book: Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen (out Nov 24, 2026)

Resources:

• Indefensible: The Seven Myths That Sustain The Global Arms Trade
• From revolving door to open-plan office: The ever-closer union between the UK government and the arms industry
• Dropsite News
• OpenSecrets

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn, and sign up for WPF's newsletter here.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery, Michelle Anderson, Alex de Waal, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

In 2026, there are more active conflicts than at any other time since World War II. Globally, defense spending is reaching new heights. For most of us, this is horrible news. But for arms producing companies, it’s all good: revenues are skyrocketing. So, in this episode we ask: how do corporate profits incentivize war?

Guests:

Andrew Feinstein is the Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations. Originally from South Africa, he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which was voted into Parliament in the country’s first post-apartheid election. He served on several oversight Committees, but eventually resigned from his position in protest of the ANC and government’s refusal to allow a full investigation into massive corruption in a $10 billion arms deal. Andrew is the author of several books on the arms trade including The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. You can follow Andrew on X at @andrewfeinstein and Instagram at @andrewfeinstein.

Janet Abou-Elias is a co-founder of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency and a researcher with the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Her research focuses on arms trade policies, international humanitarian law, and U.S. foreign policy. Connect with Janet on Linkedin here and on X at @janetabouelias.

This conversation was recorded on July 27th, 2026.

Correction: Both guests mention an incident that occurred on February 28, 2026, when the U.S. bombed a girl’s school in Minab, Iran. The guests cite different numbers of fatalities from this attack. We found slightly different numbers that also include some adults and boys. Here are some resources:

• 'What was their crime?': BBC visits Iran school where strike killed 120 children
• USA/Iran: Those responsible for deadly and unlawful US strike on school that killed over 100 children must be held accountable
• Senate Democrats demand Pentagon release findings on Iran school strike investigation

Pre-Order the Book: Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen (out Nov 24, 2026)

References:

• The SIPRI Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies, 2024 (List on pages 9-11)
• Global Violent Deaths in 2021

Resources mentioned by guests:

• Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
• Drop Site News
• Declassified UK
• Middle East Eye
• Double Down News Watch
• BDS National Committee
• The Corruption Tracker

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. This episode was produced by Bridget Conley, Emily Shaw, and Anna Van Dine. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery, Michelle Anderson, Alex de Waal, Anna Van Dine, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

In this episode, we examine why western countries keep fueling atrocities in Yemen, and what it would take to turn things around.

Radhya al-Mutawakel is the chairperson of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, an independent Yemeni organization aiming to defend and protect human rights in Yemen. The organization works on war crimes, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearance, freedom of press, and all violations of international law and humanitarian rights in Yemen. Learn more at: https://www.mwatana.org/en/home

Ruth Rohde is a researcher and project coordinator at Shadow World Investigations UK where she investigates the role of the Arms Trade in the Yemen war. She is also a co-founder and programme manager of the Corruption Tracker project. Originally from Germany, she is a dedicated member of the German peace movement, campaigning for nuclear disarmament, against the arms trade, and for a world founded on peace and solidarity nationally and internationally. Learn more about Ruth here.

Pre-Order the Book: Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen (out Nov 24, 2026)

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. This episode was produced by Bridget Conley, Emily Shaw, and Sharif Youssef. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery, Alex de Waal, Michelle Anderson, Anna Van Dine, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

In this episode, we turn our attention to the genocide in Gaza, where weapons supplied by the United States and Europe are enabling mass killing. As a warning, today’s episode discusses profound personal losses. We’re going to hear the story of Ahmed Alnaouq’s family – and of the weapons that killed them. It’s a story driven by government corruption, corporate greed, and Bridget's own tax dollars. This conversation was recorded on July 21st, 2026.

This episode continues our conversations inspired by the soon-to-be-published book, Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen, by Ruth Rohde, Jack Cinamon, and Andrew Feinstein.

Andrew Feinstein is the Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations. Originally from South Africa, he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which was voted into Parliament in the country’s first post-apartheid election. He served on several oversight Committees, but eventually resigned from his position in protest of the ANC and government’s refusal to allow a full investigation into massive corruption in a $10 billion arms deal. Andrew is the author of several books on the arms trade including The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. You can follow Andrew on X at @andrewfeinstein and Instagram at @andrewfeinstein.

Ahmed Alnaouq is co-founder of We Are Not Numbers, an organization that shares stories of the next generation of Palestinian writers and leaders. Some of those stories are collected in We Are Not Numbers, a book he co-edited. Ahmed is also the host of Palestinian Deep Dive, a video podcast. He grew up in Gaza, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from al-Azher University. He later won the UK’s prestigious Chevening scholarship and earned a master’s degree in international journalism from Leeds University Ahmed is currently based in London. You can follow Ahmed on Instagram at @ahmed_alnaouq, Palestine Deep Dive at @palestinedeepdive, and We Are Not Numbers at @we_are_not_numbers. He is also on X at @AlnaouqA

Pre-Order the Book: Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen (out Nov 24, 2026)

References:

• Suffering by Design: The Human Cost of Repeated Displacement in Gaza
• UNOSAT Gaza Strip Comprehensive Damage Assessment
• Health system at breaking point as hostilities further intensify in Gaza, WHO warns
• Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says
• War on Gaza: Weaponizing Access to Water, Energy, and Food
• IPC Famine Review Committee Report Gaza Strip, August 2025
• Gaza death toll exceeds 75,000 as independent data verify loss
• Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey
• Gaza: study reveals unprecedented losses of life and life expectancy
• Israel’s genocide wiped out over 2,700 families in Gaza

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. This episode was produced by Bridget Conley, Emily Shaw, and Anna Van Dine. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery, Michelle Anderson, Alex de Waal, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

This season, we're going deep into the arms trade, and giving you a sneak preview of the new book Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen.

To kick things off, Bridget speaks with the book's co-authors about how the arms trade - and corruption - are inextricably linked to political systems in the US and UK. They also debunk common myths about the benefits of military spending.

Andrew Feinstein is the Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations. Originally from South Africa, he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which was voted into Parliament in the country’s first post-apartheid election. He served on several oversight Committees, but eventually resigned from his position in protest of the ANC and government’s refusal to allow a full investigation into massive corruption in a $10 billion arms deal. Andrew is the author of several books on the arms trade including The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. You can follow Andrew on X at @andrewfeinstein and Instagram at @andrewfeinstein.

Ruth Rohde is a researcher and project coordinator at Shadow World Investigations UK where she investigates the role of the Arms Trade in the Yemen war. She is also a co-founder and programme manager of the Corruption Tracker project. Originally from Germany, she is a dedicated member of the German peace movement, campaigning for nuclear disarmament, against the arms trade, and for a world founded on peace and solidarity nationally and internationally. Follow Ruth on X at @Ruth4Peace.

Jack Cinamon is a researcher and Parliamentary Liaison with Shadow World Investigations, where he investigates issues around militarism, the global arms trade, and all the corruption that comes with it. He is also a Researcher for the Corruption Tracker, where he documents the ways that the arms trade contaminates politics on a global scale. You can follow Jack on X at @jackcinamon and on Instagram at @jack.cinamon.

Find out more about Shadow World Investigations, follow them on X at @shadowworldinv, & Instagram at @shadowworldinv. You can also follow the Corruption Tracker on X at @ArmsTradeCT & Instagram at @armsradect.

Pre-Order the Book: Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen (out Nov 24, 2026)

Indefensible: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade

Responsible Statecraft: Trump wages war, his sons get payoff through savvy investments

Middle East Eye: Israel uses video from Gaza genocide to market arms to European, Asian countries

Foreign Affairs: The Talks That Could Have Ended the War in Ukraine

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Frayashti Shekhawat. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery, Michelle Anderson, Alex de Waal, Anna Van Dine, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

In Season 5 of Disrupting Peace, we ask how private companies and powerful individuals make their fortune from killing…and why no one stops them. As defense budgets reach new heights, we examine the corruption and myths that prop up today’s international arms trade.

This season builds on a forthcoming new book, Making a Killing: How the West Profits from Slaughter in Gaza and Yemen by Andrew Feinstein, Ruth Rohde and Jack Cinamon from Shadow World Investigations.

Episode 1 launches on September 8, 2026.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. Find out more at worldpeacefoundation.org.

This week, Disrupting Peace is bringing you a bonus episode from our friends at RePROs Fight Back, a podcast fighting for reproductive health, rights, and justice, hosted by Jennie Wetter, who is the Director of the rePROs Fight Back initiative at the Population Institute.

In this episode, “Feminist Foreign Policy: Centering Dignity, Equity, and Justice Worldwide,” Jennie speaks with Jill Montilla and Spogmay Ahmed, who work with the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative, about why a framework that disrupts colonial, racist, patriarchal, and male-dominated power structures is critical.

Learn more about rePROs Fight Back and listen to more episodes here: https://www.reprosfightback.com/

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Kaelen Song. This season was partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

This week, we’re bringing you a bonus episode from our friends at the “If You Were in Charge” podcast. In a world increasingly led by autocratic superpowers, exploiting fear and uncertainty, the premise of if you were in charge is simple: for every major problem out in the world, there are ordinary people finding extraordinary solutions.

The episode we’re sharing is “AI: Anasuya Sengupta on Colonizing and Liberating Knowledge.” Sengupta is the cofounder of “Whose Knowledge?”, a global campaign to center the knowledge of marginalized communities (the majority of the world) on the internet.

“If You Were in Charge” is produced by ADA Productions, a podcast agency based in London, in partnership with the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) for women's rights, peace and security. It i hosted by: Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE, a peace strategist, founder, and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), and Kavita Nandini Ramdas, a globally recognised advocate for gender equity and justice and a Senior Strategic Advisor to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation.

In our last episode of the season, we explore concrete tools and tips to get smarter about the information we consume.

Ebonee Otoo leads the development of social impact strategies and goals at the News Literacy Project. Her career has spanned entertainment, public policy, and community outreach, working with Golden Girl Media, BET Networks and the International Black Women’s Public Policy Institute, among other organizations.

Dan Evon oversees producing content for RumorGuard at the News Literacy Project, including articles, classroom slide presentations, video guides and other educational materials. Before joining the News Literacy Project in 2022, Dan worked as a reporter for Snopes.com, the internet’s oldest fact-checking site, where he monitored disinformation networks and addressed viral rumors.

Resource list:

• https://www.rumorguard.org/
• https://newslit.org/
• “Biased,” “Boring” and “Bad”: Unpacking perceptions of news media and journalism among U.S. teens (2025)

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Disrupting Peace. Fill out a short survey here: https://worldpeacefoundation.org/survey

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Kaelen Song. Show artwork by Simon Fung. This season was partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery and Alex de Waal, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.

This season, we’ve been looking into the forces that get in the way of accurate information and peacemaking. One theme has repeated across discussions: how AI can muddy the information ecosystem in ways that fuel conflicts. Today, we’re spinning this issue around and asking: how can new technologies and AI benefit peace?

Johanna Poutanen is the Head Inclusion and Digital Innovation at the CMI Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, where one of her priorities is to address the opportunities and risks that digital technologies present for peacemaking. She has over two decades of experiences in mediation, including in Yemen, Palestine, South Sudan and Nepal. Find out more at: https://cmi.fi/

Evelyne Tauchnitz is a post-doc and lecturer at the University of Lucerne’s Graduate School in Ethics. Her research focuses on how digital technologies can be employed to build, support, and maintain peace through non-violent methods of conflict transformation. Find out more here.

Check out our episode on AI & Autonomous Weapons here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Disrupting Peace. Fill out a short survey.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. This episode was produced by Bridget Conley, Emily Shaw, and Ben Montoya. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Kaelen Song. Show artwork by Simon Fung. This season was partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Special thanks to Lisa Avery and Alex de Waal, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn.