Review: Making a Killing
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200405900215 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Author | Christopher Spearin |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
Alight,"
makes essential
reading
for
anyone wishing to
understand the
challenges
that
American
and
British
forces
face
when
they
presume
to
do
"nation
building"
in
a
most
improbable
place,
Iraq.
What
MacMillan
says
about
the
post-1919
attempt
to
try
to
stitch
together
in
one geopolitical
fabric
the
three
Mesopotamian remnants
of
the
col-
lapsed
Ottoman
empire-namely
the
provinces
of
Mosul,
Baghdad,
and
Basra-has
a
distressingly
contemporary
ring
to
it
(pp
397-98):
"Putting
together
the three
Ottoman
provinces
and
expecting
to
create
a
nation
was,
in
European
terms,
like
hoping
to
have
Bosnian
Muslims,
Croats,
and
Serbs
make
one
country."
David
G.
Haglund/Queen's
University
MAKING
A
KILLING
How
and
Why
Corporations
Use
Armed
Force to
Do
Business
Madelaine
Drohan
Toronto:
Random
House
Canada, 2003.
37
6
pp, $37.95
cloth
(ISBN
0-
679-31197-1)
WTith
the
increased
focus
upon non-state
actors
in
recent times
by
both
policy-makers and
analysts,
Madelaine
Drohan's book
examines
arguably
the darkest characteristic
of
one
type
of
non-state
actor:
commercial
entities operating
in
the
developing
world
that
use
force
to
accrue
profit. Guided
by
the
overarching
question
of
"What
would
drive
a
company...
to
sanction the
use
of
armed
force,
knowing
that
lives
would
be
lost?"
(p
4),
the
book
presents
a
number
of
disturb-
ing
cases,
all
taken
from
Africa
over
the
past
century
and
a
half.
It
examines
the
British
South
Africa
Company
and
King
L~opold's
rub-
ber
companies
in
colonial
times;
de
Beers,
Union
Min~re
and Lonrho
during
the
Cold
War;
and
Shell,
Ranger
Oil
and
Talisman,
along
with
the
exploits
of
Rakesh
Saxena
and
Salim
Saleh,
during
the
1990s.
For
North
American
readers,
the
book
provides
an
interesting
foil
by
which
to
assess
contemporary
controversies
concerning
the
rela-
tionship
between
public
political
leaders
and
private
business
activi-
ties.
While Dick
Cheney's
connections
with
Halliburton
or
Paul
Martin's
relations
with Canada
Steamship
Lines
may
be
suspicious,
these
relationships
are
of
a
lower
order
of
magnitude
when
compared
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring
2004
455
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