Interview: Andrew Feinstein’s Shadow World

Andrew Feinstein is a former South African MP and member of the African National Congress (ANC). He served as the chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee and resigned in 2001 when the ANC refused to conduct an investigation into the notorious 1999 South African Arms Deal. He has recently published an exhaustive study of the global arms trade, titled The Shadow World. He spoke to the Spectator about the corruption he has uncovered, the damage it is doing to democracies around the globe and the way ahead.    

Why did you write this book now?

I’ve been researching it for almost five years, since my first book on a specific arms deal in South Africa. That deal, which involved around $300m in bribes, has had a very negative impact on South Africa’s young democracy. It became clear to me that the South African experience wasn’t unique: that arms deals, whether formal government-to-government deals or in the murky world of the illicit trade in weapons, are often corrupt and have a corrosive effect on democracy in the buying and selling countries.