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Inside the Global Arms Trade - A talk by Andrew Feinstein, 26/7

Smasher | 25.07.2012 10:19 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | South Coast | World

Thursday 26th of July: The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade -Talk by Andrew Feinstein. 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton. Free entry.Followed by a Q and A. Discounted copies of the book will be on sale after the talk.

Andrew Feinstein’s book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade is a long overdue exposé of the reality behind the modern world wide war machine. Tracking behind-the-scenes arms deal negotiations and their legacies, Feinstein engagingly covers both government-to-government arms sales, under the radar weapons dealing and the way they work together -with devastating consequences for the people at the receiving end of their trade.

The Shadow World is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the business of war -and resist it.

Andrew Feinstein was elected an ANC member of Parliament in South Africa’s first free elections in 1994. He resigned in 2001 in protest at the governments refusal to investigate a £5 billion corrupt arms deal. He is now a writer and campaigner

Reviews:

“The Shadow World peels back the veil of secrecy behind which the global arms trade undermines accountable democracy, socio-economic development, and human rights, causing suffering across the world. In the same way that Andrew Feinstein exposed a corrupt arms deal that darkened South Africa’s rainbow nation, he has now turned his forensic gaze on the impact of similar weapons deals around the world. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about justice, transparency, and accountability in both the public and private spheres, and for anyone who believes that it is more important to invest in saving lives than in the machinery of death.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“Andrew Feinstein has written an authoritative guide to the business of war. Chilling, heartbreaking and enraging.” Arundhati Roy

“A devastating and scrupulously documented account of the greed, venality, and rampant corruption pervading the global arms trade. Andrew Feinstein has produced a brilliant and massively important book.” Andrew J. Bacevich

“One thing that has been missing has been a comprehensive book for the more general reader, along the lines of Anthony Sampson’s The Arms Bazaar, back in the late 1970s. Andrew Feinstein’s The Shadow World does just this, and in some ways it is even better than Sampson’s influential volume. What is particularly useful is the very unusual combination of a thoroughly readable book that also provides a quite extraordinary range of sources – some 2,500 footnotes in all. … The end result is a kind of hybrid: something close to a work of reference combined with a gripping and sometimes amazing piece of story-telling.” Independent 18 November 2011

"Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired has to be made somewhere -and wherever that is, it can be resisted"

Smasher
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