Since the Pretoria-based private military company Executive Outcomes (EO) first emerged publicly almost ten years ago, international attention has focused on the role and influence of such firms in securing, stabilising, or destabilising security worldwide.
In Britain, the 1997 Sandline and 1999 Arms to Africa affairs, in which British private military company Sandline International was involved in shipping arms to the Papua New Guinea government and providing training in Sierra Leone, demonstrated that many of these firms operate with at least the acquiescence of major western governments and their security services. This raises the question of just what government policy is towards them.
