Defense Contractors' Growing African Business

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The rise in spending since 2003, mainly by the U.S. government and going to U.S.-based private contractors, parallels the continent's rise in strategic importance. The White House now views Africa as an important battleground for stopping terrorism, securing access to oil, and countering Chinese influence, analysts say. The Pentagon's new oversight structure for the continent, The U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, formally launched on Oct. 1 with a requested budget of $400 million and a mandate that recognizes the "emerging strategic importance of Africa," according to the command's Web site.

Controversial Outcomes

Many experts are critical of the contractors working in Africa and of the rising U.S. military presence there. "If you look at the record for these programs in terms of teaching respect for human rights, professionalizing militaries, and preparing African armies for peacekeeping operations—all of which are perfectly laudable goals—the end result of the programs doesn't contribute very much to those," says Daniel Volman, who directs the African Security Research Project in Washington. "It's much more likely to be used for purposes not intended by the U.S. government: counter-insurgency warfare, terrorizing populations, repressing internal dissent, etc."

Volman and others cite Executive Outcomes, a now-defunct South African mercenary force, as an example of the hazards of private defense contractors in Africa. Executive Outcomes fought on behalf of the repressive governments of Angola and Sierra Leone in their mid-1990s civil wars. Before being shut down by the South African government in 1998, the company also did security work for mining and oil companies in Africa, work that is continued today by other contractors.

The industry has since tried to clean up its image. The International Peace Operations Assn., a trade group that is sponsoring this month's conference, promotes ethical conduct and consults with governments, nonprofits, and others. But while there are oversight mechanisms to prevent corruption and abuses of power, says independent analyst David Isenberg, often "the people who are supposed to implement them aren't there."

That criticism isn't likely to deter the defense industry from pursuing more work in Africa, most of which doesn't include armed security. Douglas Ebner, a DynCorp spokesman, refutes the notion that the company is a mercenary force, noting that most work is in training and equipping police, peacekeepers, and other armed forces in support of U.S. and U.N. objectives. Only 2% of the company's sales, he says, come from security work. When asked about Executive Outcomes, Ebner insists, "We're not that."

Delevingne is a BusinessWeek reporter in New York.