Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein trav­els across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovers how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on or­ganized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining.

Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help cor­porations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local commu­nity forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs.

What emerges through Loewenstein’s re­porting is a dark history of multinational corpo­rations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world’s most valu­able commodity. Disaster Capitalism is published by Verso in 2015 and in paperback in January 2017.

Profits_of_doom_cover_350Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar. Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom, published in 2013 and released in an updated edition in 2014, challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it. It is released in an updated edition in 2014.
forgodssakecover Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? And Where do we find hope?   We are introduced to different belief systems – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position.   Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters. Antony Loewenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam.   Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake, published in 2013, encourages us to accept religious differences, but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.  
After Zionism, published in 2012 and 2013 with co-editor Ahmed Moor, brings together some of the world s leading thinkers on the Middle East question to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and to explore possible forms of a one-state solution. Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Jewish colonization of Palestinian land. Although deep mistrust exists on both sides of the conflict, growing numbers of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs are working together to forge a different, unified future. Progressive and realist ideas are at last gaining a foothold in the discourse, while those influenced by the colonial era have been discredited or abandoned. Whatever the political solution may be, Palestinian and Israeli lives are intertwined, enmeshed, irrevocably. This daring and timely collection includes essays by Omar Barghouti, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Antony Loewenstein, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ahmed Moor, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss.
The 2008 financial crisis opened the door for a bold, progressive social movement. But despite widespread revulsion at economic inequity and political opportunism, after the crash very little has changed. Has the Left failed? What agenda should progressives pursue? And what alternatives do they dare to imagine? Left Turn, published by Melbourne University Press in 2012 and co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, is aimed at the many Australians disillusioned with the political process. It includes passionate and challenging contributions by a diverse range of writers, thinkers and politicians, from Larissa Berendht and Christos Tsiolkas to Guy Rundle and Lee Rhiannon. These essays offer perspectives largely excluded from the mainstream. They offer possibilities for resistance and for a renewed struggle for change.
The Blogging Revolution, released by Melbourne University Press in 2008, is a colourful and revelatory account of bloggers around the globe why live and write under repressive regimes - many of them risking their lives in doing so. Antony Loewenstein's travels take him to private parties in Iran and Egypt, internet cafes in Saudi Arabia and Damascus, to the homes of Cuban dissidents and into newspaper offices in Beijing, where he discovers the ways in which the internet is threatening the ruld of governments. Through first-hand investigations, he reveals the complicity of Western multinationals in assisting the restriction of information in these countries and how bloggers are leading the charge for change. The blogging revolution is a superb examination about the nature of repression in the twenty-first century and the power of brave individuals to overcome it. It was released in an updated edition in 2011, post the Arab revolutions, and an updated Indian print version in 2011.
The best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question - on Jewish identity, the Zionist lobby, reporting from Palestine and future Middle East directions - was released by Melbourne University Press in 2006. A new, updated edition was released in 2007 (and reprinted again in 2008). The book was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award. Another fully updated, third edition was published in 2009. It was released in all e-book formats in 2011. An updated and translated edition was published in Arabic in 2012.
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Photo Credit: Reuben Brand

Antony Loewenstein is a Middle East based, Australian independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger. He has written for the The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, New Statesman, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, Salon, The Daily Star, Le Monde Diplomatique English, Foreign Policy, The National, The Independent, Electronic Intifada, Al Akhbar English, Dawn, Haaretz, The Nation, New Internationalist, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Los Angeles Review of Books, BBC World Service, Adbusters, Al Masry Alyoum, Juan Cole, Mondoweiss,  Tehelka, Open Democracy, Sydney’s Sun-Herald, New Zealand Herald, Sydney Ideas Quarterly, The Australian Financial Review, Crikey, Melbourne’s Age, Brisbane’s Courier Mail, Canberra Times, Online Opinion, New Matilda, The Conversation, ABC Unleashed/The Drum, Amnesty International Australia, Green Left Weekly, Eureka Street, Kill Your Darlings, Tikkun, Adelaide’s Advertiser, The Bulletin, Znet, Overland, Sydney PEN, The Big Issue, Counterpunch and many others.

He’s a contributor to The Guardian.

Antony contributed a major chapter to 2004’s Australian best-seller, Not Happy, John! on the Middle East.

His best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question, was released by Melbourne University Publishing in 2006. A new, updated edition was released in 2007 (and reprinted again in 2008). The book was short-listed for the 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Another fully updated, third edition was published in 2009. It was released in all e-book formats in 2011. An updated and translated edition was published in Arabic in 2012.

He was a contributor to the 2008 Verso Books release, A Time to Speak Out: On Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity.

His second book, The Blogging Revolution, on the internet in repressive regimes, was released in 2008 by Melbourne University Publishing, an updated edition in 2011, post the Arab revolutions, and an updated Indian print version in 2011.

His 2010 ABC Radio National feature documentary, A Different Kind of Jew, was a finalist in the UN Media Peace Awards.

He is a contributor to the 2011 book My Favourite Teacher, published by NewSouth. He has a chapter in the 2011 book, On Utøya: Anders Breivik, right terror, racism and Europe, on the nexus between Israel and the Right.

He’s the co-editor, with Ahmed Moor, of After Zionism in 2012. A collection of the world’s leading writers and thinkers on the Israel/Palestine conflict, the book outlines how the one-state solution can be achieved in the Middle East.

He is the co-editor, with Jeff Sparrow, of Left Turn in 2012. Featuring some of Australia’s leading progressive voices, the collection provides an alternative view on #Occupy, unions, Palestine, the media, war, climate change and other vital issues.

He is a contributor to the 2012 collection, Loving This Planet, edited by Helen Calcidott and published by The New Press, on the importance of Wikileaks.

He’s co-author of the 2013 book For God’s Sake, via Pan Macmillan, on the role of religion, faith and politics in society.

He released in 2013 the best-selling book Profits of Doom, released in an updated edition in 2014, including a photography exhibition, about vulture capitalism and privatisation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, Australia, the Asia-Pacific, the “war on terror” and beyond.

In 2015 he released a major new book, Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe, out with Verso Books. It’s out in paperback in January 2017.

He’s making a documentary with New York based film-maker Thor Neureiter, Disaster Capitalism, about aid, development and politics in Afghanistan, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. It was selected for the prestigious 2016 Hot Docs film festival.

He was a Research Associate at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and is a current Associate at Sydney University’s Sydney Democracy Institute. In 2016 he was a Visiting Researcher in the Global Governance Research Unit at WZB, Berlin’s Social Science Centre. He sits on the advisory council of the British-based Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice. He is the co-founder of advocacy group Independent Australian Jewish Voices and contributed to Amnesty International Australia’s 2008 campaign about Chinese internet repression and the Beijing Olympic Games.

Antony appears regularly around the world on radio (including the BBC), TV (including Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now! and ABC News24), in public, writer’s festivals (in Australia and overseas such as Indonesia, India, South Africa and New Zealand) and at universities (including Harvard) discussing current affairs, politics and media.

Email: antloew@gmail.com

February 7th, 2006 in