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Subject: Advice needed for novel
Sucari    4/8/2007 4:50:06 PM
Hello, I'm currently wrighting a novel where in the goverment of a small pacific nation (i.e. a place like Niue, Tonga or Samoa) is overthrown by a PMC, and i'm stuck trying to think of where and how this PMC can get the finacial backing to ahcieve this, how much would this cost to do ? Where would the money come from ? Assume the country has about 5-9 hundred thousand in popoulation, no standing military but a relitivly well equiped police force, this would also have to look like a coup to not have the international community outraged.
 
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Yimmy       4/8/2007 5:27:48 PM
I was under the impression that the international community does get fairly outraged, at least at face value, over coups.  A factor would be whose are the small countries allies?  Also, unless they country was under the protection of another (ex-colonial?) power such as the UK, they would have their own military.  Such a military would likely consist of a few patrol boats to patrol their economic exclusion zone and fishery areas, and a (possibly symbolic in value) army regiment, such as the Bermuda regiment.

As for funding, I would have thought that a fairly simple question.  As they are a PMC, why not just have them having earned the money through contracts in the oil rich Middle East and Nigeria?

Sir Mark Thatcher was recently caught trying to enact a coup in Equatorial Guenia, I would reccomend doing a google search for it, and seeing what resources were published in his attempt.
 

 
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stingray1003       4/9/2007 8:35:05 PM
Your population size seems awefully large. 900,000 is Fiji large. I doubt any PMC could overthrow Fiji with out internal support. All countries that size have conciderable police and armed forces.
 
 Countries of 100,000 are far less organised.
 
Money could come from a varity of sources. Other pacific nations who want to interfer, UN votes (Taiwan is willing to hand out money to be recongised as a nation, Japan has apparently paid for whale support), Other governments who want to stabilise the region etc. Look up sandline and PNG. Mining/resorce concerns etc.  
 
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DynamicTraveler       4/9/2007 10:29:23 PM
I won't go into all the details, but Fiji recently underwent a coup in late 2006.  You can do the research, but here is one article published early in the campaign.
 
 
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Sucari       4/9/2007 11:52:48 PM
Okay, revising it a little bit, we'll say population is about 200,000. The PMC groups is using LIT tactics to try to gain the peoples support. LIT= Low Intesity Terrorism. (LIT is terrorsim without the deaths, it causes a substantail lowering in the wuality of life of the civilians in the country, I.E. Chuck a satchel charge into a transformer station, then destroy the transformer repair equipment, destroy sewage processing facilities etc.)
 
SO here is what i have in a quick rundown.
 
PMC create a terrorist group not associated with them to do these LIT attacks
 
PMC moves an office into the country, justl ike any other buisness would
 
LIT attacks continue under the name of the terrorist group, civilians getting annoyed that there goverment cannot handel the attacks
 
PMC gains popular support by helping repair LIT damage, and donating money and suplies to victims of the LIT (I.E.  food, and back-up generators to the pople effected by the transformer being taken out)
 
LIT terrorists attack the Parliment of the country, the PMC moves to counter them. The Prime minister and most of the cabnit is either kidnapped, killed, or injured.
 
PMC takes "temporary" control and are able to stop the LIT attacks and destroy the terrorist group, civilian population is relieved and happy.
 
PMC makes changes in govemrent structure, creating a Democratic monarchy, placing the PMC leader as the permanent head of state, the Legislative and judicial branches remain democratic.
 
Then as an after thought the PMC helps to grow the place economicly through similar economic tactics used by Dubai.
 
 
 
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smitty237       4/10/2007 12:15:02 AM
You might want to check out Fredrick Forsythe's The Dogs of War.  He covers all those bases.  You also might want to look up Bob Denard.  He was a French mercenary that carried out a coup in the Comorros Islands in the late 70s.  There have been few successful coups of this type because European powers tend to step in. 
 
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Sucari       9/13/2007 11:05:09 PM
OKay well the novel is comming along nicely, one part i do not like asm uch and i'm wondeirng if any of you have any ideas: Where do troops needed for the coup come from ? (Obviosly ex-military but how are they recuited) and Who (which ex-armed forces) are most likely ot be interested in beign part of a coup for the promises of power, money and land ?
 
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