  In this paper we study non-perturbative instabilities in Anti de-Sitter vacua
arising from flux compactifications of string models with broken supersymmetry.
In the semi-classical limit, these processes drive the vacua towards lower
fluxes, which translate into higher curvatures and higher string couplings. In
order to shed some light on this regime, we provide evidence for a description
in terms of branes, which generate near-horizon AdS throats. To this end, we
study the attractor properties of the geometries near the throat, and we also
characterize their asymptotics away from it. We also describe the instability
within a probe-brane picture, finding an agreement between low-energy
(super)gravity and brane instanton estimates of the decay rates.
