Making a Killing: How and Why Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business

Abstract

Madelaine DrohanToronto: Random House Canada, 2003. 376pp, $37.95 cloth (ISBN 0-679-31197-1)With 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 company...to sanction the use of armed force, knowing that lives would be lost? (p 4), the book presents number of disturbing cases, all taken from Africa over the past century and half. It examines the British South Africa Company and King Leopold's rubber companies in colonial times; de Beers, Union Minere 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 relationship between public political leaders and private activities. While Dick Cheney's connections with Halliburton or Paul Martin's relations with Canada Steamship Lines may be suspicious, these relationships are of lower order of magnitude when compared with Drohan's presentation of political celebrity Salim Saleh, the younger brother of Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni. In one of the book's most intriguing chapters, Drohan documents the complex mix between business, politics and the military as the dividing lines between public and private blur in Saleh's lucrative activities in both Uganda and the war-torn neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite Saleh's protest to the author that he is merely a military officer who is accidentally doing business (p 317), the reader is left with the definite impression that his activities were no mistake. Instead, they were the direct result of political connections and the use of brute force made possible in weak state.For Canadian readers, the book is both alarming and instructive. It is alarming because an explicit link in the book's cases can be drawn between violence and the activities of Canadian firms in Angola, Sierra Leone, Sudan and the DRC. It is instructive because, with respect to the Canadian oil firm Talisman in Sudan, the book reveals the limitations in pursuing the human security agenda, current trend in Canadian foreign policy. Drohan clarifies the problems former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy encountered as he tried to end Talisman's relationship with Sudanese government engaged in long-running civil war. Axworthy lacked the appropriate legislative tools, key cabinet members were not on board, and the termination of Talisman's activities posed both threat to independent Canadian oil production and electoral sensitivities in the Canadian oil patch. It becomes clear, therefore, that pursuing the human security agenda presents significant barriers. The necessary actors--state and non-state--may not necessarily be supportive, and the vested interests that need to be overcome--both political and economic--may be deep.The book does, however, have three detractions that lessen its overall impact. The first concerns the presentation of the evidence. On the one hand, the book's narrative style adds to the provocative nature of the subject matter. On the other hand, unity and coherence--both within and between paragraphs--are often lacking. While this writing style may serve Drohan well as newspaper reporter for the Globe and Mail, it does detract from the flow of an argument in book form. …