Books and Other References on Modern Mercenaries

[IntelTrooper]

Hi All,

I've seen a lot of reference to operations and units that took part in post-colonial Africa recently, and on further reading have seen that mercenaries played at least some part in a lot of these ops and units. I don't want to waste my time reading poorly researched or shallow books so I was hoping some of the experts on the Council could recommend good books or other references on the use of mercenaries in post-colonial Africa and elsewhere (the Balkans?).

[SethB]

Peter Singer's book (http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Warriors-Privatized-Military-Industry/dp/0801474361/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244228458&sr=8-3) has a chapter on Executive Outcomes work.

Another thing worth researching is the growing body of legislation regulating mercenarism in Africa. This takes the forms of national legislation and international law. Also worth noting is that they use a different definition of mercenaries than other international laws do.

[davidbfpo]

Try: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=5706&highlight=sierra+leone , http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=5684&highlight=executive+outcomes and http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=7169&highlight=mercenaries .

Try the search option with every word that is relevant, or advanced search.

davidbfpo

[IntelTrooper]

Try: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=5706&highlight=sierra+leone , http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=5684&highlight=executive+outcomes and http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=7169&highlight=mercenaries .

Try the search option with every word that is relevant, or advanced search.

davidbfpo
Fantastic, thanks David!

[BayonetBrant]

Tim Spicer's autobiography "An Unorthodox Soldier" has some good chapters about the Sierra Leone work that Sandline was trying to do.

[Umar Al-Mokhtār]

Congo Mercenary by Mike Hoare
A decent, but naturally one sided, look at the activities of 5 Commando in the Congo in the mid 1960s.

WAR DOG: Fighting Other People's Wars -The Modern Mercenary in Combat by Al Venter

Soldiers of Fortune: A History of the Mercenary in Modern Warfare by Tony Geraghty

Venter covers a wide range of African mercenary operations while Geraghty covers those and more recent operations in the Balkans and Middle East.

Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Updated Edition by P. W. Singer

These two books explore the more recent phenomenon of PMCs and how they are filling a variety of roles in modern warfare.

[BayonetBrant]

if you want to go all the way back to the brush wars of the '60s, then Steiner's autobiography "The Last Adventurer" is pretty good too. He claims he was in Biafra as a citizen, not a mercenary, b/c he believed in the cause.

[davidbfpo]

Added to the books read thread a couple of weeks ago and in case not found:

'The Circuit' by Bob Shepherd, pub. 2008, is an excellent description of the international commercial security industry, better known as PMC; the author is an ex-SAS NCO's account starting before 9/11 and good chapters on Afghanistan. Ends with a call for greater regulation and ending contracts that should belong to the state. I suspect only in hardback, maybe wait till in paperback. See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Circuit-Sold.../dp/0330455737

davidbfpo

[Tom Odom]

If you want to read about the use of the mercs in the Congo in the 64-65 time frame look at

Leavenworth Paper #14 The Dragon Operations: Hostage Rescues in the Congo 1964-1965 (http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/odom/odom.asp)

Pay attention to the Belgian role under COL BEM JLA Vandewalle in organizing, leading, and supporting the mercs. If you read French, COL Vandewalle's L'Ommengang: Odyssée et Reconquête de Stanleyville, 1964. Brussels, Belgium: Le Livre Africain, Collection Temoinage Africain, 1970 is much better than Hoare's pulp history.

Best
Tom