Anna researches and teaches on the arms trade, militarism and global insecurities. In recent years she has focused mostly on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the war in Yemen, and arms sales to Israel and the war in Gaza. She's particularly interested in the ways war meets business, the justifications given for the arms trade, and the similarities and differences between western and non-western patterns of arming and war-fighting. She often works with civil society organisations, social movements, journalists, lawyers and parliamentarians to engage publicly and behind the scenes on arms trade issues. 

Anna is currently working on two book projects: a global anti-colonial history of today's arms trade; and a book about UK involvement in the arms trade in the past 20 years. Her first book, "Taking Aim at the Arms Trade. NGOs, Global Civil Society and the World Military Order" (Zed Books, June 2010), analysed the way that NGOs such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Saferworld and Campaign Against Arms Trade work for tighter controls on the arms trade. In 2012 she edited a book on "Militarism and International Relations: Political Economy, Security, Theory" with Jan Selby (Routledge).

Anna spent ten years as an Editor at Security Dialogue, a top 10 journal in Political Science and International Relations. She co-edited the 2018 special issue on "Militarism and Security: Dialogue, possibilities, limits" with Maria Stern (University of Gothenburg). You can see her other journal articles under the Publications tab. 

Anna also works on as the Director of Research and Strategy at Shadow World Investigations, an organisation that investigates corruption and the arms trade. 

She has given oral and written evidence to the parliamentary Committees on Arms Export Controls, acted as an expert witness in Information Tribunals and criminal trials for anti-arms trade protestors, and is a Listed Expert in the Forum on the Arms Trade, member of the UK Working Group on Arms and Brussels Group on Arms Exports, patron of Scientists for Global Responsibility, board member of Demilitarise Education and trustee of the Trust for Research and Education on the Arms Trade (TREAT). Anna has written about UK arms export for a public audience and given interviews on radio about UK policy. These can be found among her publications.