Matt Herbert

Articles, Assessments, and Chapters

‘A Critical Moment: Haiti’s gang crisis and international responses,’ The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, January 2024. Written with Romain Le Cour Grandmaison and Ana Paula Oliveira. Available here.

“Crime and Sanctions - The case of Guinea Bissau,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, January 2024. Written with Lucia Bird. Available here.

“Hard Targets: Identifying a framework of objectives for targeted sanctions on illicit economies,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, December 2023. Written with Lucia Bird. Available here.

“Executive Summary - Convergence Zone: The Evolution of Targeted Sanctions Usage Against Transnational Organized Crime,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, December 2023. Written with Lucia Bird. Available here.

‘The Burners: Smuggling Networks and Maghrebi Irregular Migrants in North Africa,’ in Global Human Smuggling: Creativity, Control, and Complexity in Unauthorized Mobility, Edited by Luigi Achilli and David Kyle (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).

“The “Non-Maghreb” and Transnational Clandestine Flows from the Sahel Region,” in The Cost of the Non-Maghreb, Italian Institute for International Political Studies, November 2023. Available here.

“Convergence Zone: The Evolution of Targeted Sanctions Usage Against Transnational Organized Crime,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, September 2023. Written with Lucia Bird. Available here.

‘Illicit economies and peace and security in Libya.’ Co-written with Rupert Horsely and Emad Badi. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, July 2023.

“Fragile States and Resilient Criminal Ecosystems - Human Smuggling and Trafficking Trends in North Africa and the Sahel,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (August 2022). Written with Mark Micallef. Available here.

“Tunisia - Strengthening of Security Force Unions Blunts Internal Control,” ISPI and DCAF, August 2022. Available here.

“Tunisia - Growing Irregular Migration Flows Amid Worsening Political Fragility,” Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (July 2022). Available here.

‘Blessing And Curse: Petroleum profits, control and fragility in Libya, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, June 2022. Written with Emad Badi. Available here.

“The Challenge of Coordinating Border Management Assistance between Europe and the Maghreb,” Migration Policy Institute, March 2022. Available here.

“Losing hope: Why Tunisians are leading the surge in irregular migration to Europe,” Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (January 2022). Available here.

“Largely fleeting and hardly convergent: Libyas crime-terror nexus,” authored with Mark Micallef. In The Nexus Between Organized Crime and Terrorism: Types and Responses, edited by Letizia Paoli, Cyrille Fijnaut and Jan Wouters (Elgar, Cheltanham: 2022). Available here.

"Extractive Resource Protection in Libya - The Challenge of Reforming and Supporting the Petroleum Facilities Guard," in The Road To Stability: Rethinking SSR in Post Conflict Libya, DCAF (November 2021). Available here.

‘Communities and Crime Wars,’ written with Tuesday Reitano and Siria Gastelum Felix, in The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling, Edited By Max Gallien and Florian Weigand (Routledge, November 2021).

“Conflict, Coping and Covid: Changing human smuggling and trafficking dynamics in North Africa and the Sahel in 2019 and 2020,” Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (May 2021). Available here.

“Securing and Stabilising Borders in North and West Africa,” Institute for Security Studies (December 2020). Available here.

“A rising tide: Trends in production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in North Africa,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (June 2020). Available here.

“Just Across the Sea: The Changing Politics of Irregular Migration from and through Morocco and Tunisia,” in Mediterranean Challenge: What pushes people from Africa northwards, Edited by Stefano Torelli, Reset Dialogues on Civilizations (November 2019). Available here.

“‘La Mal Vie’: The Routes, Drivers, and Politics of North African Irregular Migration,” Institute for Security Studies (May 2019). Available here.

“Less than the sum of its parts: Europe’s fixation with Libyan border security,” Institute for Security Studies (May 2019). Available here.

“States and Smugglers: The Ties that Bind and How they Fray,” in Transnational Organized Crime and Political Actors in the Maghreb and Sahel, Mediterranean Dialogue Series no. 17, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (January 2019). Available here.

"The Insurgency in Tunisia's Western Borderlands," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (June 2018). Available here.

“Middle East Drugs Bazaar: Production, Prevention, and Consumption By Philip Robins,” Bustan: The Middle East Book Review (Vol. 8, No. 2, 2017). Available here.

"At the Edge: Trends and Routes of North African Clandestine Migrants," Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Institute for Security Studies (November 2016). Available here.

“Border Security Challenges in the Grand Maghreb,” Peaceworks Report, U.S. Institute of Peace. Co-Authored with Querine Hanlon (May 2015).

“Partisans, Profiteers, and Criminals: Syria's Illicit Economy,” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 38:1 (Winter 2014). Available here.

"Barriers to Polio Eradication in Somalia: A Field Assessment," STATT Consulting (January 2014).

“Mobile Finance and Citizen Security in East Africa,” STATT Consulting (July 2012). Available here.

“Is Grandma Ready for This? – Mexico’s Move to Electronic G2P Payments,” Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion Monograph, Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion. Co-Authored with Ashirul Amin and Ahmed Dermish (April 2011). Available here.

“Savings and Chance in Haiti,” The MasterCard Foundation & Center For Emerging Market Enterprises. Co-Authored with Kim Wilson, Toru Mino, Josh Haynes, Christine Martin, and Mariah Levin (Spring 2010).

“Corrupted Militaries: Criminality, Conflict, and Coercion,” New Routes Journal, Life and Peace Institute (Summer 2009). Available here.

Selected Commentary

“Countering Libya’s illicit economies through targeted sanctions,” ENACT Observer, 14 July 2023.

‘Breaking the cycle The GI-TOC addresses extortion at International Migration Review Forum Multistakeholder Hearing,’ Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (May 2022).

“Crime after Mali’s coup: Business as usual?”, The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (August 2020).

“Captured by the Cartels,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (April 2020).

“What would Khalifa Haftar’s Libya look like?,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (March 2020).

“Warning signs from Tunisia’s localised terrorist insurgency,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (January 2020).

“Lessons from Algeria on foreign terrorist fighters,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (December 2019).

“Better police-civilian relations can reduce irregular migration,“ ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (November 2019).

“Maghrebi irregular migration is down but for how long?” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (November 2019).

“Libya’s war becomes a tech battleground,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (October 2019).

“Morality should drive Europe’s new migration policies with Africa,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies. Co-authored with Clare Profous (August 2019).

“Changing the migration horizon from North Africa to Europe,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (August 2019).

“Where to from here in Algeria?” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (July 2019).

“Reform of Libya’s security sector must not fail again,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (July 2019).

“Terrorism in Tunisia: more than just foreign connections,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (July 2019).

“Social media bridges North Africa’s divides to facilitate migration,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies. Co-authored with Amine Ghoulidi (March 2019).

“Algeria’s protests and migration: the fearmongers have it wrong,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies. Co-authored with Sofian Philip Naceur (March 2019).

“The Maghreb’s Changing Politics of Migration,” ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (February 2019).

“The Butcher’s Bill: Cocaine Trafficking in North Africa,” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (September 2018).

"Tunisia isn’t a migrant transit country – yet," ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies. Co-authored with Max Gallien (August 2018).

"The Risks of Hardened Borders in North Africa," Sada, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Co-authored with Max Gallien (August 2018).

"Better policing can help combat human trafficking," ISS Today, Institute for Security Studies (August 2018).

“Out of the Streets and Into the Boats: Tunisia’s Irregular Migration Surge,” MENASource, The Atlantic Council. Co-authored with Max Gallien (November 2017).

"Italy claims it’s found a solution to Europe’s migrant problem. Here’s why Italy’s wrong," The Monkey Cage, Washington Post. Co-authored with Jalel Harchaoui (September 2017).

“Petrol Smuggling: Oiling the Wheels of Organized Crime,” Analyzing Organized Crime, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (August 2014).

“Organized Crime Looks East,” Analyzing Organized Crime, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (January 2014).

“Somalia’s Innovating Pirates,” Reinventing Peace, World Peace Foundation. Co-authored with David Knoll (November 2013).

“A Review of ‘Africa and the War on Drugs,” African Arguments (April 2013).

“The Somali Piracy Model: Coming to a Sea Near You,” World Politics Review. Co-authored with Jamie De Coster (February 2012).

“How M-Banking Can Reduce Laundering,” Africa Business Daily (May 2009).