South Africa

Thought I'd find out a little more about exactly who the Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (ECAAR) are and what they stand for. For those of you who are wondering, ECAAR is an NGO that has been (thusfar) unsuccessfully fighting against South African arms deal through the Courts. Their website notes that ECAAR's mission is to :

"promote objective economic analysis and appropriate action on global issues relating to peace, security and the world economy."

Their list of Directors and Trustees is extremely impressive and is a virtual who's who of modern Economics - there are no less than 10 Nobel Laureates on the Board. I must be honest I was very surprised when I found out what kind of intellectual weight they (ECAAR) could throw around, I was expecting a disorganised and reactionery bunch of disaffected University lecturers! Their South Africa website can be found here and contains many an interesting article on the arms deal and the many irregularities that have accompanied it.

Another good read is by the Chairman of ECAAR South Africa, Terry Crawford-Browne. Crawford-Browne was regional treasury manager for Nedbank in the Western Cape until he became adviser to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Allan Boesak during the 1985-1991 international banking sanctions campaign. 

Check out the article here.