Research + Analysis + Journalism + Documentary

Research - Highlights

Cross-Border, Convoys, and Covert-Ops: Responding to state-led arbitrary aid denial in civil wars. Lessons from Syria, Myanmar, and Ethiopia. – Supported by Heinrich Boell and published here. More details on this work around this can be found here.

Syrian Security Sector Research — Understanding the logic behind the Syrian regime’s violence - EIP Research published with MEI
A short public-facing overview highlighting some of the findings from a years-long multi-disciplinary research project into the Syrian security sector and its relationship to the Syrian civilian population. More details on this work around this can be found here.

Estimating Covid-19 rates in Syria’s first wave — Leveraging community mortality indicators to infer COVID-19 mortality and transmission dynamics in Damascus, Syria — Nature Communications
Beginning as an independent multi-disciplinary investigation into the real rates of Covid-19 in Damascus during Syria’s first wave of infection in 2020 for Syria in Context, the resulting collaboration had wide ranging policy impacts. More details on this work around this can be found here.

Breaking Aleppo and Breaking Ghouta - Atlantic Council DFRLab reports
Exhaustive dossiers produced on short-turnaround detailing the horrors of the last weeks of each siege and the forced evacuation of these areas. Reports have been heavily drawn on by the OPCW, jurists, policy-makers and scholars.

Analysis - Highlights

We can’t hope to end wars if we’re not honest about what they are - New Humanitarian

A World at War: What Is Behind the Global Explosion of Violent Conflict? - Foreign Affairs

Humanitarian Blackmail: How Belligerents Use Negotiations Over Aid to Extort the West - Foreign Affairs

Lessons from Syria’s Aid Response: The Case for Continued Cross-border Operations - MEI

After the Earthquake: Possible Paths Toward Humanitarian Gains in Syria - Carnegie MEC

Applying Lessons from Syria to other Contexts - Emma's Syria work and policy experience informed a non-paper on ‘Lessons Learned in Syria’ to help inform a best practice integrated response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was utilized by US and European officials, EU Ministers, and was discussed in private roundtables attended officials and agencies in the early phases of the Ukraine war. It also informed strategic analysis for the European Leadership Network [Approach with caution: Lessons for Ukraine from the Russian approach to ceasefires and humanitarian access in Syria, March 2022] and Carnegie MEC [How the Lessons of the Syria War May Safeguard Lives in Ukraine, April 2022], which was picked up in global media such as CNN, Financial Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The National, France 24, and others. More information on this work can be found here.

More of Emma’s analysis can be found below.

Journalism - Highlights

Humanitarian Aid in Syria - Investigation - A multi-part investigative reporting series for The Guardian, looking at challenges in the humanitarian assistance response in Syria. This work resulted in tangible policy change in the response and saw her invited to Beirut to provide strategic advice to UN agencies, INGOs, and donors in the country in the ensuing years.

Guardian briefing: The key questions around aid in Syria - The Guardian

U. N. hires Assad's friends and relatives for Syria relief operation - The Guardian

Lifesaving U.N. aid regularly fails to reach besieged Syrians - The Guardian

Aid groups suspend cooperation with UN in Syria because of Assad 'influence' - The Guardian

UN under pressure to set up inquiry into Syria aid programme - The Guardian

How Assad regime controls aid intended for Syria's children - The Guardian

UN pays tens of millions to Assad regime under Syria aid programme - The Guardian

UN shelved 2017 reforms in Syria aid response - IRIN

UN Allowing Assad to Take Lead in Aleppo Reconstruction - Fox News

Syria's cruel 'reconciliations' - Daily Beast

U.N. Again Allowing Assad Regime to Edit Syria Aid Document - Daily Beast

Assad’s Savage Aleppo Strategy: Evacuate or Die - Daily Beast

The Syrian Humanitarian Food Farce - Daily Beast

Aid group Mercy Corps forced to close Damascus operation - The Guardian

Assad expels aid groups as Syria starves - Daily Beast

Wheat as a Weapon of War - Munchies / Vice Magazine, three-part feature series - James Beard Awards Finalist

A three-part magazine series on the critical roles that seeds, wheat, and bread play in the current Syrian crisis. Finalist for a James Beard Award, 2017.

Part Two - How Syrian bakers are making bread against all odds

Part Three - How scientists are ensuring Syria's seeds survive conflict and climate change

More of Emma’s journalism can be found below.

TV + Documentary

Ai Weiwei Studios – 'Human Flow' – Field Producer – Field producing for a feature-length documentary project by artist, Ai Weiwei, on the refugee crisis. General release 2017/2018.

BBC Panorama - 'Hostages' - Producer / Researcher – Field producing and researching a one-hour prime-time special for BBC Panorama on the Syria hostage crisis. TX date pending.

VICELAND – 'States of Undress - Pakistan' – Produced hour-long TV documentary shoot in three cities in Pakistan with an eight-member crew. Screened April 2016.

BBC Panorama – ISIS: Terror in Iraq – Produced the Syria shoot and sequences and ISIS fighter components of a fast turn-around news documentary on ISIS for BBC Panorama. Screened 2014.

Vice News – The Battle for Iraq (3 parts) – Field produced three short documentaries on fast- turnaround in Iraq as ISIS took Sinjar mountain and Mosul Dam in summer 2014. Online 2014.

AJ+ - In-depth PKK documentary – Field produced a short-feature documentary on the PKK in Qandil and the front lines in Kirkuk and Maxmur in Iraq for AJ+. 1M+ views since release in 2014.

ABC News (Australia) – 4 Corners - Produced the local segment of '4 Corners' on foreign fighters and ISIS in Raqqa. Screened 2014.

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More Journalism

Refugee crisis: Trapped in the brutality of the Syrian civil war - Raconteur Magazine, cover story

A desolate stretch of desert shows the human cost of painting refugees as a security threat, as opportunists worldwide exploit fears of terrorism for political gain.

Masterminds of terror - Raconteur Magazine - cover story

Firas and Amr al-Absi emerged from the chaos of the Syrian civil war to engineer a campaign to horrify the West and recruit the fighters who would go on to attack civilians in Paris and Brussels.

Beyond Satire - Matter Magazine

What the hell is going on in Syria? - Medium

Syrian doctors turn to crowdfunding as red tape locks aid money - The Guardian

Tomorrow, I am going to leave my homeland - The Wireless

Push for east Aleppo aid drops using GPS-guided parachutes - The Guardian

My incredible friend was killed by ISIS in Syria - Mashable

In Kurdistan, new refugees wonder about education - Al-Fanar

Measles vaccination mix-up leaves 15 infants dead in northern Syria - The Guardian

Airstrikes pound ISIS forces as rebels gain an unlikely ally - Vice News

Syria's election, a tale of two towns - Middle East Eye

Prankster punks Syrian election - Vocativ

Months of bombings leave Syria's Aleppo in ruins - USA Today