Private Militaries And The Security Industry In Civil Wars

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Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars

Author : Seden Akcinaroglu
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197520804
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars by : Seden Akcinaroglu

Download or read book Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars written by Seden Akcinaroglu and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Whether they train police forces in Afghanistan or provide military assistance to governments in Africa that are battling rebel groups, private military and security companies (PMSCs) or corporations that provide security & military services for profit have been present in numerous conflicts around the globe. In 1984 only one international PMSC intervened in a civil war, in 1989 there were 15 international PMSCs present in conflict zones, while from 2004-2019 nearly 130 of such companies provided services during the Iraq war. Why do international PMSCs sometimes help with conflict termination while in other cases their intervention is associated with prolonged wars? And in what ways does market competition affect PMSCs' military effectiveness? Relying on quantitative analysis of original data on international PMSCs' involvement in civil wars from 1990-2008 and PMSCs' human rights and fraud violations in Iraq from 2004-2019, the book investigates how local and global competition impact accountability of these non-state actors and their contribution to the termination of major and minor wars"--

Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars

Author : Seden Akcinaroglu
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780197520833
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars by : Seden Akcinaroglu

Download or read book Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars written by Seden Akcinaroglu and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether they train police forces in Afghanistan or provide military assistance to governments in Africa that are battling rebel groups, private military and security companies (PMSCs), or corporations that provide security and military services for profit, have been present in numerous conflicts around the globe. In 1984 only one international PMSC intervened in a civil war; in 1989 there were 15 international PMSCs present in conflict zones, while from 2003 to 2019 over 120 of such companies provided services during the Iraq war. Why do international PMSCs sometimes help with conflict termination while in other cases their intervention is associated with prolonged wars? And in what ways does market competition affect PMSCs' military effectiveness?

Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies

Author : Alan Axelrod
Publisher : CQ Press
ISBN 13 : 1483364666
Total Pages : 670 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies by : Alan Axelrod

Download or read book Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies written by Alan Axelrod and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-12-27 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercenaries have been active in battle from the beginning of military history and, as private armies and military support firms, they are a major component of warfare today. Security, military advice, training, logistics support, policing, technological expertise, intelligence, transportation—all are outsourced to a greater or lesser degree in the U.S. military. However, privatization is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Australia rely on privatization in one form or another. Historically, heads of state, politicians, and other administrators have justified use of mercenaries on the basis of their effectiveness, and cost-savings. These reasons and others continue to serve as rationales for use of private military companies in military strategy. Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies provides a comprehensive survey and guide to mercenary forces, entrepreneurs, and corporations active on the international military scene today, including a concise history of mercenaries and private armies on land, sea, and in the air. Narrative chapters are amply supplemented by sidebars including biographies of major figures, key statistics, historical and current documents, contracts, and legislation on private armies and outsourced military services. Each chapter includes a bibliography of books, journal articles, and web sites, and a general bibliography concludes the entire work.

Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars

Author : Seden Akcinaroglu
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197520812
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars by : Seden Akcinaroglu

Download or read book Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars written by Seden Akcinaroglu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1990s, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have intervened in civil wars around the globe. International, legally registered corporate actors have assisted governments with a myriad of tasks including combat support, logistics, army and police training, intelligence analysis, and guard services. However, reports that such contractors have been responsible for human rights abuses have spurred the need to evaluate the industry's impact on conflicts. Are these contractors effective in curbing violence or does emphasis on profit and lack of accountability get in the way? And how can governments improve PMSCs' commitment to contractual obligations, including adherence to international humanitarian laws? This book identifies two market forces that impact PMSCs' military effectiveness: local or conflict-level competition and global or industry-level competition. Specifically, Seden Akcinaroglu and Elizabeth Radziszewski challenge the assumption that interventions by profit-driven coporations are likely to destabilize areas engaged in war, and provide data that private contractors do contribute to conflict termination under certain circumstances. They argue that competitive market pressure creates a strong monitoring system and that the company's corporate structure and external competitive environment in a given conflict help to explain the variance in accountability to clients. Including an analysis of data on international PMSCs' interventions in civil wars from 1990-2008, Akcinaroglu and Radziszewski show the impact of competition on companies' contribution to the termination of different types of civil wars.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability

Author : George Andreopoulos
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000022536
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability by : George Andreopoulos

Download or read book Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability written by George Andreopoulos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have constituted a perennial feature of the security landscape. Yet, it is their involvement in and conduct during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have transformed the outsourcing of security services into such a pressing public policy and world-order issue. The PMSCs’ ubiquitous presence in armed conflict situations, as well as in post-conflict reconstruction, their diverse list of clients (governments in the developed and developing world, non-state armed groups, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and international corporations) and, in the context of armed conflict situations, involvement in instances of gross misconduct, have raised serious accountability issues. The prominence of PMSCs in conflict zones has generated critical questions concerning the very concept of security and the role of private force, a rethinking of "essential governmental functions," a rearticulation of the distinction between public/private and global/local in the context of the creation of new forms of "security governance," and a consideration of the relevance, as well as limitations, of existing regulatory frameworks that include domestic and international law (in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law). This book critically examines the growing role of PMSCs in conflict and post-conflict situations, as part of a broader trend towards the outsourcing of security functions. Particular emphasis is placed on key moral, legal, and political considerations involved in the privatization of such functions, on the impact of outsourcing on security governance, and on the main challenges confronting efforts to hold PMSCs accountable through a combination of formal and informal, domestic as well as international, regulatory mechanisms and processes. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, practitioners and advocates for a more transparent and humane security order. This book was published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Ethics.

Private Military and Security Companies

Author : Andrew Alexandra
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134081871
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Military and Security Companies by : Andrew Alexandra

Download or read book Private Military and Security Companies written by Andrew Alexandra and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-10-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited book provides an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art overview of the growing phenomenon of private military companies.

From Mercenaries to Market

Author : Simon Chesterman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199228485
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis From Mercenaries to Market by : Simon Chesterman

Download or read book From Mercenaries to Market written by Simon Chesterman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-12 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to a security vaccuum, private military companies are commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support, and which play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. This work analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead, organized around four sets of questions, which are reflected in the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?

Corporate Warriors

Author : P. W. Singer
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801459603
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (596 download)

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Book Synopsis Corporate Warriors by : P. W. Singer

Download or read book Corporate Warriors written by P. W. Singer and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some have claimed that "War is too important to be left to the generals," but P. W. Singer asks "What about the business executives?" Breaking out of the guns-for-hire mold of traditional mercenaries, corporations now sell skills and services that until recently only state militaries possessed. Their products range from trained commando teams to strategic advice from generals. This new "Privatized Military Industry" encompasses hundreds of companies, thousands of employees, and billions of dollars in revenue. Whether as proxies or suppliers, such firms have participated in wars in Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and Latin America. More recently, they have become a key element in U.S. military operations. Private corporations working for profit now sway the course of national and international conflict, but the consequences have been little explored. In this book, Singer provides the first account of the military services industry and its broader implications. Corporate Warriors includes a description of how the business works, as well as portraits of each of the basic types of companies: military providers that offer troops for tactical operations; military consultants that supply expert advice and training; and military support companies that sell logistics, intelligence, and engineering. In an updated edition of P. W. Singer's classic account of the military services industry and its broader implications, the author describes the continuing importance of that industry in the Iraq War. This conflict has amply borne out Singer's argument that the privatization of warfare allows startling new capabilities and efficiencies in the ways that war is carried out. At the same time, however, Singer finds that the introduction of the profit motive onto the battlefield raises troubling questions—for democracy, for ethics, for management, for human rights, and for national security.

Private Military and Security Companies and States

Author : Christopher Spearin
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319549030
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (195 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Military and Security Companies and States by : Christopher Spearin

Download or read book Private Military and Security Companies and States written by Christopher Spearin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-02 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book identifies and explains the functional and ideational boundaries regarding what states and Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) both do and possess regarding land power, sea power, and air power. Whereas the mercenaries, privateers, and chartered companies of years past held similar characteristics to state military forces, the PMSCs of today are dissimilar for two reasons: a conventional forces norm amongst states and a state proclivity towards the offensive. These factors reveal both the limitations of and the possibilities for contemporary security privatization. This volume is ideal for civilian and military practitioners and students wishing to develop a detailed understanding of what the private military and security industry has to offer and why it is structured the way it is.

Private Security Contractors and New Wars

Author : Kateri Carmola
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135153280
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (351 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Security Contractors and New Wars by : Kateri Carmola

Download or read book Private Security Contractors and New Wars written by Kateri Carmola and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the ambiguities of the growing use of private security contractors and provides guidance as to how our expectations about regulating this expanding ‘service’ industry will have to be adjusted. In the warzones of Iraq and Afghanistan many of those who carry weapons are not legally combatants, nor are they protected civilians. They are contracted by governments, businesses, and NGOs to provide armed security. Often mistaken as members of armed forces, they are instead part of a new protean proxy force that works alongside the military in a multitude of shifting roles, and overseen by a matrix of contracts and regulations. This book analyzes the growing industry of these private military and security companies (PMSCs) used in warzones and other high risk areas. PMSCs are the result of a unique combination of circumstances, including a change in the idea of soldiering, insurance industry analyses that require security contractors, and a need for governments to distance themselves from potentially criminal conduct. The book argues that PMSCs are a unique type of organization, combining attributes from worlds of the military, business, and humanitarian organizations. This makes them particularly resistant to oversight. The legal status of these companies and those they employ is also hard to ascertain, which weakens the multiple regulatory tools available. PMSCs also fall between the cracks in ethical debates about their use, seeming to be both justifiable and objectionable. This transformation in military operations is a seemingly irreversible product of more general changes in the relationship between the individual citizen and the state. This book will be of much interest to students of private security companies, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general. Kateri Carmola is the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Political Science at Middlebury College in Vermont. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

States, Citizens and the Privatisation of Security

Author : Elke Krahmann
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139483684
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis States, Citizens and the Privatisation of Security by : Elke Krahmann

Download or read book States, Citizens and the Privatisation of Security written by Elke Krahmann and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen a growing role for private military contractors in national and international security. To understand the reasons for this, Elke Krahmann examines changing models of the state, the citizen and the soldier in the UK, the US and Germany. She focuses on both the national differences with regard to the outsourcing of military services to private companies and their specific consequences for the democratic control over the legitimate use of armed force. Tracing developments and debates from the late eighteenth century to the present, she explains the transition from the centralized warfare state of the Cold War era to the privatized and fragmented security governance, and the different national attitudes to the privatization of force.

Corporate Soldiers and International Security

Author : Christopher Kinsey
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113421409X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (342 download)

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Book Synopsis Corporate Soldiers and International Security by : Christopher Kinsey

Download or read book Corporate Soldiers and International Security written by Christopher Kinsey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-06-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history of private military companies, with a special focus on UK private forces. Christopher Kinsey examines the mercenary companies that filled the ranks of many European armies right up to the 1850s, the organizations that operated in Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s, the rise of legally established private military companies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and today’s private and important actors in international security and post-conflict reconstruction. He shows how and why the change from the mercenary organizations of the 1960s and 1970s came about, as the increasing newness of private military companies came to be recognised. It then examines how PMCs have been able to impact upon international security. Finally, Kinsey looks at the type of problems and advantages that can arise for organizations that decide to use private military companies and how they can make an unique contribution to international security. Corporate Soldiers and International Security will be of great interest to all students of international politics, security studies and war studies.

Natural Resources and Private Military Security Companies

Author : U S Military
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781704377483
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (774 download)

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Book Synopsis Natural Resources and Private Military Security Companies by : U S Military

Download or read book Natural Resources and Private Military Security Companies written by U S Military and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The commissioning of mercenary companies, otherwise known today as private military security companies (PMSCs), to enhance military and political capabilities as well as to ensure economic stability for state and non-state actors is well known in the subfield of conflict studies. The conflict studies sub-discipline of civil wars is also well researched with numerous studies that address the four common variables of civil war scholarship: (1) onset, (2) intensity, (3) duration and (4) termination. However, there are few studies that address civil war duration, natural resources, and PMSCs (foreign intervention). The goal of this paper is to identify how PMSCs may affect civil war duration in developing African states with resource wealth. This paper finds that PMSCs can increase the duration of a civil war because of the services provided and the promise of future extraction rights (FER) for natural resources as payment for the commission of the PMSCs by the state government. This paper will primarily build off the research design of Ross' "How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases," in which he develops nine testable hypotheses about the variables that link natural resources and civil war by using the qualitative case study research method. Ross' research identifies four additional variables after conducting his analysis, and this paper will build off one of these unanticipated variables, the variable affecting civil war duration. The civil war duration variable, which is the promise of future extraction rights (FER) for natural resources as payment to fund military action in support of the state government, will be examined in this paper with one more additional mechanism not addressed by Ross and others in the civil war natural resource subfield, the involvement of PMSCs and their potential influence on the duration of a civil war. The two civil war case studies for consideration are the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) and the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2000). Executive Outcomes (EO) and Sandline International are the two PMSCs that participated in Angola's and Sierra Leone's civil wars.This compilation also includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.There are four broad insights from this study: (1) the duration of civil wars in resource-wealthy states is prolonged due to the interests of multiple actors in exploiting said resources; (2) during the period studied, mining and investment firms have a significant interest in ensuring that their mining concessions are secure in conflict zones, and more importantly, the state is prohibited from achieving effective governance; (3) these two cases are unique in that EO could shape the PMSC market for ten years before international and regional state reaction to the significant resource exploitation and violence to the general population; and (4) PMSCs had to modify their business model from an offensive role to a more logistical support role as international and regional organizations recognized the exploitative nature of PMSCs and mining companies.

The Markets for Force

Author : Molly Dunigan
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812291433
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Markets for Force by : Molly Dunigan

Download or read book The Markets for Force written by Molly Dunigan and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-01-21 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Markets for Force examines and compares the markets for private military and security contractors in twelve nations: Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, China, Canada, and the United States. Editors Molly Dunigan and Ulrich Petersohn argue that the global market for force is actually a conglomeration of many types of markets that vary according to local politics and geostrategic context. Each case study investigates the particular characteristics of the region's market, how each market evolved into its current form, and what consequence the privatized market may have for state military force and the provision of public safety. The comparative standpoint sheds light on better-known markets but also those less frequently studied, such as the state-owned and -managed security companies in China, militaries working for private sector extractive industries in Ecuador and Peru, and the ways warlord forces overlap with private security companies in Afghanistan. An invaluable resource for scholars and policymakers alike, The Markets for Force offers both an empirical analysis of variations in private military and security companies across the globe and deeper theoretical knowledge of how such markets develop. Contributors: Olivia Allison, Oldrich Bures, Jennifer Catallo, Molly Dunigan, Scott Fitzsimmons, Maiah Jaskoski, Kristina Mani, Carlos Ortiz, Ulrich Petersohn, Jake Sherman, Christopher Spearin.

State Control Over Private Military and Security Companies in Armed Conflict

Author : Hannah Tonkin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis State Control Over Private Military and Security Companies in Armed Conflict by : Hannah Tonkin

Download or read book State Control Over Private Military and Security Companies in Armed Conflict written by Hannah Tonkin and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past two decades have witnessed the rapid growth and consolidation of the global private security industry. Tens of thousands of contractors working for private military and security companies (PMSCs) now provide a wide range of services to states, international organisations, corporations and non-governmental organisations around the world. Many PMSCs operate in zones of armed conflict, where they carry out functions that were formerly the exclusive domain of the armed forces. In this context, PMSCs have performed coercive activities such as offensive combat, armed security and the detention and interrogation of prisoners, as well as non-coercive activities such as military advice and training, transport, housing and intelligence collection and analysis"

Private Security Companies during the Iraq War

Author : Scott Fitzsimmons
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317541707
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Private Security Companies during the Iraq War by : Scott Fitzsimmons

Download or read book Private Security Companies during the Iraq War written by Scott Fitzsimmons and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the use of deadly force by private security companies during the Iraq War. The work focuses on and compares the activities of the US companies Blackwater and Dyncorp. Despite sharing several important characteristics, such as working for the same client (the US State Department) during the same time period, the employees of Blackwater fired their weapons far more often, and killed and seriously injured far more people in Iraq than their counterparts in DynCorp. In order to explain this disparity, the book undertakes the most comprehensive analysis ever attempted on the use of violence by the employees of these firms. Based on extensive empirical research, it offers a credible explanation for this difference: Blackwater maintained a relatively bellicose military culture that placed strong emphasis on norms encouraging its personnel to exercise personal initiative, proactive use of force, and an exclusive approach to security, which, together, motivated its personnel to use violence quite freely against anyone they suspected of posing a threat. Specifically, Blackwater’s military culture motivated its personnel to fire upon suspected threats more quickly, at greater distances, and with a greater quantity of bullets, and to more readily abandon the people they shot at when compared to DynCorp’s personnel, who maintained a military culture that encouraged far less violent behaviour. Utilizing the Private Security Company Violent Incident Dataset (PSCVID), created by the author in 2012, the book draws upon data on hundreds of violent incidents involving private security personnel in Iraq to identify trends in the behaviour exhibited by the employees of different firms. Based on this rich and original empirical data, the book provides the definitive study of contemporary private security personnel in the Iraq War. This book will be of much interest to students of the Iraq War, Private Security Companies, Military Studies, War and Conflict Studies and IR in general.

Public War, Private Fight? The United States and Private Military Companies

Author : Deborah C. Kidwell
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1257122355
Total Pages : 90 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (571 download)

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Book Synopsis Public War, Private Fight? The United States and Private Military Companies by : Deborah C. Kidwell

Download or read book Public War, Private Fight? The United States and Private Military Companies written by Deborah C. Kidwell and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-03-25 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United States has long utilized private military contractors to augment regular military forces in support of its national foreign policy and security needs. Commonly referred to as Private Military Companies (PMCs), contractors employ and manage civilian personnel from the private sector in areas of active military operations. Frequently, regular troops become dependent on the services contractors provide a situation that may negatively impact military effectiveness. Since 1991, contractor support on and off the battlefield has become increasingly more visible, varied, and commonplace. Given the current manpower and resource limitations of the national military, the US will likely continue its extensive use of PMCs in support of military operations. This work addresses historical precedents and trends in American logistics, the current scope of contractor involvement in support of regular military forces, and the challenges posed as traditional military institutions integrate increasing numbers of civilian workers and privately owned assets into the battlespace. These problems increase the risk to US personnel and can induce budget overruns rather than savings, disrupt civil-military relations, and have detrimental consequences for the American economy and society. The work concludes by proposing a useful rubric to evaluate this new American way of war. This work considers PMCs and their interdependence with regular and reserve military units in a broad sense. It derives from unclassified material widely available; understandably, these sources limit the analysis. Lessons learned from the Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) theaters may alter findings. However, this study endeavors to frame the continuing dialog concerning the appropriate use of PMCs to support regular troops."--Abstract from DTIC web site.