Professional Affiliation

Executive Director, Conflict Awareness Project; Principal Researcher, US-Mexico Security Cooperation Project, Pacific Council on International Policy

Expert Bio

Kathi Lynn Austin is the founder and Executive Director of the Conflict Awareness Project, where she investigates major arms traffickers and other profiteers who fuel war, armed violence, transnational organized crime, and terrorism. Using a “follow the guns” methodology, her work examines the illicit trade of weapons, illegal supply chains, corruption, natural resource exploitation, and wildlife crime spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. With over 35 years of field experience, she is an internationally recognized expert on human rights, security issues, and the weapons trade and is regularly consulted on arms and human rights-related investigations and litigation.

Ms. Austin has served as an arms expert with the United Nations and continues to consult  consultant for leading multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations. Currently, she is a Fellow with the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley and Principal Researcher for the U.S. -Mexico Security Cooperation Project at the Pacific Council On International Policy.  In October 2023, the Pac Council published her latest report: "The U.S.- Mexico Double Fix: Combating the Flow of Guns to Transnational Organized Crime.” Austin is also a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, the Forum on the Arms Trade, and Explorers Club. She was named the Arms Control Association’s “Person of the Year” in 2011.