You’d be hard pressed to find someone more well versed on African national security than Eeben Barlow. We’ve covered Barlow‘s history on this site for years, and now for the first time get the chance to speak with him on this two-hour episode. As a former South African Defense Force Lieutenant-Colonel, co-founder of private military company Executive Outcomes, and an expert author, Barlow has been there and done that. On this show with Barlow we cover the history of foreign intervention in the region, accusations of racism regarding the men who fought for South Africa, and why African sources need to be better trusted to deal with their own national security than foreign governments from Eeben’s perspective.  This leads us to to more recent failures of U.S. involvement in the region like the Benghazi attack, and the Niger ambush. Barlow has written several books, some of which are now out of print, but we’re excited to hear that “Executive Outcomes: Against All Odds” has just been re-printed as a revised edition. This new edition of “Executive Outcomes” along with “Composite Warfare: The Conduct of Successful Ground Force Operations in Africa” are currently available through Bush War Books who ships internationally, and these are definitely suggested reading by Jack Murphy.

Along with this discussion, we read your emails sent to [email protected]. Keep those coming, as well as those much appreciated five star written reviews on Apple Podcasts. Let us know what you think of this episode on our Twitter @SOFREPRadio. We’d love to have Eeben back, because even at this length we’ve just scratched the surface.