Timothy Raeymaekers is a lecturer of Political Geography at the University of Zurich. He is primarily interested in the political economy of armed conflict, borders and migration. After an education in contemporary European History (University of Ghent) and International Relations (London School of Economics) he had a short career in journalism, where he focused attention on social issues (squatters, racism, migration and economic markets) and African conflicts. He worked as an activist and analyst at the International Peace Information Service (Antwerp) before moving to University research into natural resource exploitation and the armed conflict in Central Africa’s Great Lakes region – particularly Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda. His work about coltan (colombo-tantalite) and its role into the financing of the second Congo war (1998-2003) has been widely acclaimed as ground-breaking conflict reporting, with several important policy and judiciary implications.