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This event will be held in English.
Organized by the Columbia Global Paris Center.
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Join award-winning journalist and author Alex Perry for a conversation with Phil Chetwynd, Global News Director at Agence France-Presse (AFP), on Blood Will Flow: The Murderous Business of Oil and Gas, a gripping investigation into the human, political, and economic forces driving one of the world's most powerful industries.
Beginning with the devastating 2021 ISIS attack on Palma, Mozambique—a town transformed by one of the largest natural gas projects in Africa—Perry reconstructs the events that left hundreds dead and exposed profound failures by governments, corporations, and private security actors. From this harrowing story, he broadens the lens to examine the opaque networks of influence, wealth, and violence that underpin the global oil and gas economy.
Drawing on years of investigative reporting across Africa, Europe, and the United States, Perry reveals how geopolitical interests, multinational corporations, and private actors shape conflicts, influence public policy, and profit from the world's dependence on fossil fuels. At a moment when energy security, climate change, and resource politics dominate international affairs, Blood Will Flow offers a timely and deeply reported account of the hidden costs of powering the modern world.
Speakers
Alex Perry is a reporter and nonfiction author of six books, whose work is frequently adapted for the screen. His latest book, Blood Will Flow, which is being published worldwide in 2026 and 2027, uncovered a hidden humanitarian disaster -- the second bloodiest terror attack of all time -- outside the gates of a TotalEnergies gas plant in northern Mozambique. Perry's work is now the basis for two criminal cases in Paris against Total, accusing the company of involuntary manslaughter and complicity in war crimes. His work on Mozambique also won a George Polk Award and a True Story award, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism, among several other nominations. Perry's journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Politico, The Economist, Outside, The Guardian, Harper's, TIME, Newsweek, and others.
Phil Chetwynd is the Global News Director of Agence France-Presse (AFP). He leads a newsroom of 1700 journalists based in over 150 countries. Phil has been responsible for AFP's editorial strategy prioritizing on-the-ground human storytelling in multimedia formats, the development of a world-class video service and an award-winning pivot on climate coverage. He has also made AFP a leading voice in the battle against misinformation. During a long career at AFP, Phil occupied the posts of Global Editor-in-Chief and Chief Asia Editor. He was also a foreign correspondent working in Asia and the Middle East. He began his career in British regional newspapers.
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This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.
Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.
