Mercenaries

Mercenaries have been employed as auxiliaries since early times, but in the post-1945 world they have operated, almost exclusively, in weak Third World countries. From Columbia to the Congo, Angola to Papua New Guinea, Cambodia to Nicaragua, they have appeared: training the drug cartel armies, assisting rebellions or civil wars, acting as the agents of the major powers. In the Congo crisis (1960-1965) they earned an especially unsavory reputation for greed, brutality and racism; it is a reputation that has stuck to the mercenary and on the whole justly. During the 1990s a new phenomenon has emerged in the form of the mercenary corporations such as Executive Outcomes or Sandline. These corporations offer a range of military expertise and weaponry, have the covert support of governments in the countries from which they come and are rapidly becoming a power to themselves, ultimately far more dangerous than the individual freebooters of the past.

This book details mercenary history and the new phenomenon which has emerged in the form of the mercenary corporations.

Booknews

The 1998 restoration of President Kabbah in Sierra Leone with the aid of a British company exemplifies a new trend in the use of mercenaries. The author of several books on the third world reveals how the deployment of freelance soldiers-of-fortune in the Congo, Angola, and elsewhere has given way to even more dangerous corporate mercenaries who are outsourced by military security advisory companies claiming to work for legitimate governments. One hopeful note is included: the appended articles of the UN International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries (1989). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Guy Arnold is a freelance writer who lives in England.