Excellent contacts with both the industry and the post-Apartheid government allowed a level of access to information which makes the book the definitive empirical study of the South African defence industry to date. The book, while largely descriptive and fact-oriented, provides interesting insights into the political economy of defence production. It is instructive for those studying the relationship between the state and private sectors in general, as well as t hose interested in the study of the effects of defence decline in other cases, including Russia and several countries in Western Europe. - Michael Brzoska. Bonn International Center for Conversion. 1998.