Afr.j. polit. sci. (2000), Vol. 5 No. 1,163-165 
BOOK REVIEW 
Jakkie Cilliers & Peggy Mason, (eds.), Peace, Profit or Plunder? The Privatisation 
of Security in War-torn Societies. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 1999. 
Pp. 245. 
This book, discusses an issue that has plagued the politics of post-independence 
African states since the 1960s. The presence of mercenaries and their contribution 
to the collapse of the Congolese state, now Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), is 
a well known case of the potentially dangerous impact of these sub-state actors on 
state politics. In the post-cold war period, discussions and analyses of the role of 
mercenaries in state politics has resurfaced and placed itself squarely at the centre 
of discussions about how the provision of security in all its forms should happen: 
state - or mercenary centred security? Such analyses have raised central and 
critical questions dealing with the concept of security? To what extent can security 
be privatised? What is the nexus between structural adjustment programmes 
(SAPs), which undermine state capacity to perform, security functions and the rise 
of what are known alternatively as Private Military Companies (PMC) or Private 
Security Companies (PSC). What is the nexus between resource appropriation and 
the operations of these actors? 
Mercenaries have re-emerged unto African politics since die 1990s in a more 
vicious, "efficient" and endemic manner. Two points are particularly troubling. 
Point one concerns their presentation in the media. They are now habitually 
presented as settling knotty security issues in several of the continents collapsing 
states, which their authorities are incapable of resolving. The second, is the 
perception that mercenaries rescue European "humanitarians" assisting disaster 
victims, who themselves have become casualties, entangled in the irrational 
disorder of African politics. The dilemmas mat are raised by analysing PMCs or 
PSCs is difficult to capture, and how they can be controlled is aptly captured by the 
title of this book. 
In the preface to this edited book, its editors define their task which resulted 
from conference papers and a series of commissioned articles as " . . . ensurpog] 
1027-0353 ©1999 African Association of Political Science
164 Emmanuel K. Aning 
that the issues would be discussed and presented from different angles". 
However, the editors place a caveat on the contributors by asserting that because 
of their interest in diversity of opinions and views - which is not a bad idea in 
itself - both theoretical and ideological perspectives would somehow not be 
given central emphasis. And it is this rather unclear definition and arbitrary 
delineation of the duties of the authors that somehow undermines the efforts of 
some contributions. 
In spite of this ambiguity the book is a major contribution towards clarifying 
some of the confusion surrounding either PMSs, PSCs or the private security 
industry (PSIs). The book is divided into eleven chapters with a preface and a list 
of abbreviations that has useful acronyms for those not conversant with the 
terminology in the field. While some of the chapters cover very general topics, 
Chapters 1,2,3,4,10 and 11, others, Chapter 5,6,7,8 and 9 are relatively specific 
in their focus. 
Jakkie Cilliers and Ian Douglas present a discussion of the military as business 
(pp. 111-123) by examining the transition and career trajectories of ex-military 
officers from state service into private and profit-oriented business. What is 
particularly novel about the discussion here is that while the focus of the book is 
on war-torn African societies, this chapter competently analyses the emerging 
philosophy underlying the new security trends that are found in all war-torn 
societies: the inability of recognised state entities to provide their citizenry with the 
expected human- and state-security. Their analysis and presentation of the example 
of Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) in Croatia is useful 
in this light. 
Other important issues concern the rampant employment of such "forces" to 
perform services without the appropriate legislation in terms of accountability, 
transparency and codes of ethics. But if there is a lack of norms and values 
concerning the extent to which PSIs can be employed, there is no doubt, at least 
in an African context, that the rise of PSIs in several African instances can be 
contextualised as battles for scarce but valuable natural resources. Angola 
(Chapter 8) and Sierra Leone (Chapter 9) and the ephemeral successes of 
Executive Outcomes (Chapter 5) are examples. Most especially, the manner in 
which the former company attained international popularity or notoriety — 
depending on who is examining their actions — by appropriating and presenting 
its functions through sophisticated international terminology, was most disturbing. 
Suddenly, the perception of mercenaries as les 'affreux' (the horrible ones) 
was replaced by a false sense of decorum, probity and respectability. 
Characterisations such as "competitive tendering", "effectiveness", and 
"rationalisation" became buz words beneath which they still pursued their trade: 
profit, loot and subversion of stability. 
Ian Douglas' chapter on Sierra Leone is one of the specific case studies which
Book Review 165 
% to situate the tragic situation in that country within a wider perspective. 
'%Bver, it has certain analytical and interpretational weaknesses. Other chapters, 
Wing Richard Cornwell's, have situated the contemporary phenomenon of 
in the context of the collapsed state, Mark Malan's analysis takes a totally 
%ent point of departure: namely an approach that seeks to understand how the 
Rational community has increasingly shelved its responsibility to play the role 
'lit ought to in finding solutions to African crises. 
%i the whole, the book is well-edited and the difficult issues taken up by the 
%rent chapters are presented in a readable and easily accessible language. The 
%nts and approach will certainly generate debates in the coming years. It 
'tildes important background information to understanding and appreciating 
'%fcan conflicts and the major actors involved in them. This book is highly 
*Dnmended to both academics and practitioners in the field. 
Manuel Kwesi ANING 
Ifcute of Political Science 
ersity of Copenhagen