[GZG] Stars, Planets and Mercenaries

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Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lA couple of books
that may be of interest to the members of this group:

'New Worlds in the Cosmos: The Discovery of Exoplanets' by Michel Mayor
and Pierre-Yves Frei. Cambridge University Press 2003.  ISBN 0 521 81207
0 (Originally published as 'Les Nouveaux mondes du Cosmos' by Editions du
Seuil 2001).

Michel Mayor is one of the people who discovered the first extra-solar
planet (51 Peg b) in 1995.

Very interesting read on both the history of astronomy with regards to
the hunt for extra-solar planets, and the discovery process itself.
Includes as an appendix a list of exoplanets discovered up until 2002 which is
very similar to a list I stumbled across on the interweb some
time back at www.obspm.fr/planets
(Mayor references this site and number of other astro sites in the back of his
book).

The other book is 'Corporate Warriors:The Rise of the Privatized Military
Industry' by P.W. Singer. Cornell University Press 2003. ISBN 0 8014 4114 5.

This book takes a look at the evolution of the mercenary, particularly from
the freebooters of the 1960's (Mike Hoare et al) through to the corporations
such as Executive Outcomes, Sandlines, Dyncorp, Brown and Root, and
Halliburton, who have effectively corporatized the provision of logistics,
training and military support services, as well as the actual fighting,
itself.

Amongst operations Singer covers is the Executive Operations
intervention in Sierra Leone in the mid/late 1990s which reads like
something out of Traveller or Machiavelli's 'The Prince'.

Basically, EO cuts a deal with the government who can't pay, but who
gives mineral concessions in rebel-held territory to a third company
which has ties to EO.  EO lands approximately a battalion of ex-South
African Defence Force personnel, with a freighter off-shore to carry the
heavy gear, and including their own wing of attack helicoptors. They punch
huge holes in the rebels, but instead of finishing them off, move to secure
the mineral concession. The government gets a bit toey, but the president is
then replaced with someone EO can better do business with. Elections are held.
The new president says, 'thanks and bye' to EO, who point out that his
government won't last 100 days. On day 95, the new president is slung out, and
the rebels attack again. EO doesn't get to renew its contract as the UN have
now moved in. A local tribe of forest hunters that EO trained up to track down
the rebels is also a new problem as they liked getting paid and are now not,
and they have been trained and equipped by EO and are able to take on rebels,
UN peace keepers and Sierra Leone army!

Singer could have used a proof reader on his book, but it is still an
interesting read and asks a number of very important questions about the
future relationship of states and corporations involved in the military field.

For Dirtsiders and Stargrunters, there's quite a bit of useful information on
how modern Private Military Providers are organised and operate, and the sort
of resources they can potentially call upon (including the text of the
contract between Sandlines and the Papua New Guinea government in the late
90's that nearly saw Sandlines involved in Bougainville, which includes the
equipment they expected to deploy with) which could be of use for setting up
scenarios.

Regards