Social Studies

French attorney Jacques Vergès has devoted a long career to defending terrorists, dictators and mass murderers. He has consistently challenged the wider social order judging his defendants. Critics call him a devil's advocate, and a scandalously immoral publicity seeker.

Stéphanie Giry found a more complex reality as...

Reporter Michelle Nijhuis and photographer Jeffrey Barbee spent 10 days on the Juneau Icefield following a research team led by veteran glaciologist Maynard Miller. Miller's half-century commitment to research and teaching on the icefield has given him a rare first-hand perspective on climate change. He has watched the Juneau...

Conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo have resulted in millions of Congolese lives lost, while benefiting the trade of small arms and valuable minerals like coltan.

In Zimbabwe, growing political and economic instability has put unprecedented pressure on the country's environment. Deforestation, poaching and unsustainable resource exploitation are destroying what was once among the best-managed park systems in Africa. As a result, people who depend on the country's natural resources - either for day- to-day...

Tyler Marshall reports on the prodigious spread of China's geopolitical influence across southeast Asia and the western Pacific, often in territories long noted as American allies.

In the thick green rainforest at the triple frontier of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, a Muslim Arab community stands accused — yet again — of complicity in international terrorism. So far, investigations have turned up empty, but the community is learning to live with a target on its back....

Reporter Stephanie Hanes and photographer Jeffrey Barbee traveled around Rwanda to look at the lasting impact of choices made about the environment during conflict. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 left an estimated 800,000 people dead, and helped destabilized central Africa. In the face of this human catastrophe, few people...

As the world watches Darfur to the West, government harassments in East Sudan have forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Like their counterparts in Darfur, eastern rebels complain that successive governments in Khartoum have left their region under-developed, whilst exploiting its natural resources.

East Sudan is...

Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center executive director, traveled to Sudan in early 2006 to investigate the effectiveness of the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur.