Making a killing : how and why corporations use armed force to do business / Madelaine Drohan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Drohan, Madelaine.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International business enterprises--Corrupt practices.

International business enterprises.

International business enterprises--Moral and ethical aspects.

Mercenary troops.

Police, Private.

Business ethics.

Physical Description:

376 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Lyons Press edition.

Place of Publication:

Guilford, Conn. : Lyon's Press, 2004.

Summary:

What happens when multinational corporations decide that the use of armed force is just business by another means? In Making a Killing, Madelaine Drohan looks at the shocking number of companies that have linked up with mercenaries, warlords, armies, and private militias in order to make a profit. In a world where multinationals often rival national governments in size and clout, the implications of such partnerships are ominous. What leads respectable corporations down the path to violence? Drohan answers this question by examining the actions of several companies operating in Africa, such as Ranger Oil West Africa, which used the mercenary group Executive Outcomes to take on rebels in Angola's long-running civil war; and Talisman Energy, whose security was provided by Sudanese army units conducting a scorched-earth policy in the oil fields. Drohan traces the modern roots of corporate armed force, beginning with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company, which at the turn of the twentieth century built its own army. Also included is the stranger-than-fiction tale of ex-MI5 spymaster Sir Percy Sillitoe, who was hired by the De Beers diamond king to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring smuggled diamonds in order to develop the hydrogen bomb. These accounts read like adventure stories in the tradition of Rudyard Kipling and Ian Fleming, but they are essential reading for anyone interested in the effects of unfettered multinational influence. Making a Killing provides a road map for corporations, policy makers, and investors struggling to come to terms with their roles in today's increasingly globalized world.

Contents:

Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company

King Leopold and the rubber companies

Sir Percy and the diamond king

Union Miniere in Katanga

Lonrho in Mozambique

Shell in Nigeria

Ranger Oil in Angola

Rakesh Saxena in Sierra Leone

Talisman in Sudan

Salim Saleh in the Congo

Perfectly legal, perfectly immoral.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-356) and index.

ISBN:

1592285775

9781592285778

OCLC:

55981515

Online:

Contributor biographical information