 | Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Updated Edition Subjects: Defense industries; Military-industrial complex; Privatization; Defense industries -- United States; Military-industrial complex -- United States; Privatization -- United States; United States -- Military policy; A security analyst at the Brookings Institution, Singer raises disturbing new issues in this comprehensive analysis of a post-Cold War phenomenon: private companies offering specialized military services for hire. These organizations are nothing like the mercenary formations that flourished in post-independence Africa, whose behavior there earned them the nickname les affreux: "the frightful ones." Today's corporate war-making agencies are bought and sold by Fortune 500 firms. Even some UN peacekeeping experts, Singer reports, advocate their use on grounds of economy and efficiency. Governments see in them a means of saving money-and sometimes a way to use low-profile force to solve awkward, potentially embarrassing situations that develop on the fringes of policy. Singer describes three categories of privatized military systems. "Provider firms" (the best known being the now reorganized Executive Outcomes) offer direct, tactical military assistance ranging from training programs and staff services to front-line combat. "Consulting firms," like the U.S.-based Military Professional Resources Inc., draw primarily on retired senior officers to provide strategic and administrative expertise on a contract basis. The ties of such groups to their country of origin, Singer finds, can be expected to weaken as markets become more cosmopolitan. Finally, the overlooked "support firms," like Brown & Root, provide logistic and maintenance services to armed forces preferring (or constrained by budgetary factors) to concentrate their own energies on combat. Singer takes pains to establish the improvements in capability and effectiveness privatization allows, ranging from saving money to reducing human suffering by ending small-scale conflicts. He is, however, far more concerned with privatization's negative implications. Technical issues, like contract problems, may lead to an operation ending without regard to a military rationale. A much bigger problem is the risk of states losing control of military policy to militaries outside the state systems, responsible only to their clients, managers, and stockholders, Singer emphasizes. So far, private military organizations have behaved cautiously, but there is no guarantee will continue. Nor can the moralities of business firms be necessarily expected to accommodate such niceties as the laws of war. Singer recommends increased oversight as a first step in regulation, an eminently reasonable response to a still imperfectly understood development in war making. (July) Forecast: A long New York Times piece last October detailed the recent exploits of corporate forces, but didn't get much play in the run-up to war. Look for corporate forces to be a topic of discussion when "peacekeeping" becomes an issue in Iraq and elsewhere. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Peter Warren Singer graduated with a BA from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earned his Ph.D. in Government at Harvard University. Previous career experiences include working for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Balkans Task Force in the U.S. Department of Defense, and the International Peace Academy. He also served as the Defense Policy Task Force coordinator for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Singer is the Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution and was the youngest scholar named a Senior Fellow by the Institution. He has written the following books about contemporary warfare: Corporate Warriors, Children at War, and Wired for War. Corporate Warriors, about private companies providing services to the military, was named best book of the year by the American Political Science Association. Children at War, which examines the role of child soldiers, was recognized as the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book of the Year Award. Wired for War became a New York Times bestseller in the first week of its release and focuses on current technologies being used in warfare, including robotics. Singer is a frequent consultant and commentator and has written numerous articles for major publications including the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and World Policy Journal, as well as spoken on the radio and appeared on television. (Bowker Author Biography) |
