[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

David