Book Launch - Māori in the Private Military Industry

Book Launch - Māori in the Private Military Industry

“The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ‘easily the largest privatized conflicts the world has ever seen’. Some have even described them as ‘contractor wars’”.

So starts the new book by Dr Maria Bargh A Hidden Economy - Māori in the Private Military Industry which is to be launched thisWednesday 18th November 2015 in Wellington, and gives a fascinating insight into the rise of the global private military industry and how some Māori have operated, or continue to operate, in it.

Although Dr Bargh has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from Australia National University and she currently teaches in the area of Māori politics and economics and Indigenous Resource Management at Victoria University, the step to researching the private military industry wasn't obvious.

‘In some ways it is a bit odd for me to have written on this topic’ said Dr Bargh. ‘After years of working on projects for the hapu and to try to increase people’s understandings about Maori politics in order to bring about constitutional change – this project was quite new. I had heard people I knew talking about their family members in this industry and I always wondered what it was really like.’

Finding candidates to be involved with the book took some work. ‘Workers in the privatized military industry very rarely, if ever, give interviews about their work, let alone details about their pay and how they spend it. So in some ways, this book provides a glimpse into a very secret world - and how Maori operate within it.’

The book launch will take place at Vic Books in Kelburn, Wellington commencing at 6.00pm. If you intend to attend, please RSVP to Terese Mcleod at terese.mcleod@vuw.ac.nz for catering purposes.

ENDS

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