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A 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
David
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