How it Could Happen

“You can still travel pretty much anywhere so long as you stay out of the tourist ruts, trust the locals, and don’t advertise your movements,” says adventure contributing editor Robert Young Pelton, author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places. A few notable exceptions: Yemen, where as many as nine foreigners were executed in June; bandit-and-pirate-beset Somalia; Sudan; and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then there’s Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The real risk here is being kidnapped, held for ransom, or possibly murdered,” says Robb Maxwell, iJET regional analyst.