ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two military companies, Executive Outcomes (EO) and MPRI, both of which have attracted considerable controversy. EO has tried to burnish its corporate image in a bid to avoid mercenary stereotypes, but the company is effectively a demobilised army for hire. EO acts largely independently of its home state - a characteristic that leaves many countries uneasy - while MPRI has worked almost entirely as an extension of US foreign policy. Strategic Resources Corporation has numbered among its directors Barlow, Luitingh and Van Den Bergh. They have used EO profits as venture capital to invest in other companies, many of which are run by former South African Defence Force comrades, as part of a general post-apartheid expansion of business links between South Africa and its neighbours. EO has been credited with considerable military success in Angola and Sierra Leone. The chapter outlines EO's operations in Angola, and assesses the company's impact on the war in Sierra Leone.
