Selected articles | Benjamin Sutherland

SELECTED ARTICLES

LINKS TO a selection of articles I have written for The Economist, from more than a dozen countries, are below. Security is a big theme. Topics range from things like preparations for warfare in space and Ukrainian military innovation to, say, lawlessness at sea, the hunt for clandestine nuclear programs, Russian cyber-attacks on soldiers’ smartphones, and how culture influences combat performance.

The bulk of my reporting covers security developments reshaping balances of power—be it, say, preparations for warfare in space, efforts to counter growing lawlessness at sea, empowering drones with AI, or better harnessing cultural fortes to improve combat performance.

My reporting often unearths sensitive information. One article reveals how some Ukrainian farmers are taking advantage of the war to better evade taxes. In another, I explain how Ukraine’s tightened capital controls are being sidestepped with illicit exports of “black grain.” During research for a piece on Ukraine’s use of AI for its defense, I learned that a massive “constructor” model fed military and socioeconomic data helps inform President Volodymyr Zelensky on, among much else, the politically explosive matter of crafting mobilization policies.

Information from a former senior CIA official allowed me to reveal a cunning scheme put in place decades earlier. Not all of the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles given to Afghanistan’s mujahideen had been fired when Soviet forces left in 1989. To discourage any subsequent airplane downings, the agency secretly reacquired, booby-trapped, and put back into circulation some of the missiles. Anyone who pulled the trigger would have his head blown off.

Many of my articles detail remarkable innovation. Some thrusterless satellites, for example, are now cleverly maneuvered by tilting their solar panels so they hit a greater number of errant air molecules. How are sound engineers modulating frequencies to create “3D music”? War criminals are being identified by AI that assesses reams of online video. It might be possible to protect Venice from rising seas by pumping water underground to lift the city.

How is AI helping identify war criminals? What is “3D music”? Why have UN peacekeeping missions failed, to violent effect, in the eastern Congo, southern Lebanon, and elsewhere?

Some of my journalism has proven prescient. Before the recent failures, to violent effect, of UN “blue helmet” peacekeeping missions in the eastern Congo and southern Lebanon, I wrote an investigative piece on the structural reasons for such dysfunction. One article I wrote before the devastating 2025 fires in Los Angeles County cast light on California’s dismal forest management. Another outlined how pressure from tribal activists led California to concoct a costly plan to destroy four hydroelectric dams and the reservoirs behind them.

I’ll note yet another of the themes that emerge in the articles below. Supposedly bright ideas often lead to unfortunate unintended consequences. Although well intentioned, the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example, has led to a great number of shockingly abusive lawsuits. In the European Union, restrictions on imports of hydrofluorocarbon greenhouse gases used in industry have enriched smugglers while handicapping producers that play by the rules. In an age awash in virtue-posturing and slapdash online posts that mislead by omission, The Economist’s carefully researched reporting, I believe, has never been more valuable.