Some believe that poverty and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa is the result of the centuries of exploitation by foreign powers. Others blame it on poor African leadership and argue that the outside world has provided substantial aid in recent decades. The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth by Tom Burgis dismisses these beliefs and reveals a web of corporate structures that holds both African leaders as well as powerful international institutions complicit in the modern plunder of Africa.