Contractors And War

The U.S. military is no longer based on a Cold War self-sufficient model. Today's armed forces are a third smaller than they were during the Cold War, and yet are expected to do as much if not more than they did during those years. As a result, a transformation is occurring in the way the U.S. government expects the military to conduct operations—with much of that transformation contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterwards. Contractors and War explains the reasons behind this transformation and evaluates how the private sector will shape and be shaped by future operations. The authors are drawn from a range of policy, legislative, military, legal, and academic backgrounds. They lay out the philosophical arguments supporting the use of contractors in combat and stabilization operations and present a spectrum of arguments that support and criticize emergent private sector roles. The book provides fresh policy guidance to those who will research, direct, and carry out future deployments.

Examining the record of contractors essential to the conduct of recent conflicts around the world, this book looks at the evolution of US reliance on contract support as well as the various types of contractors such as consultants, service providers, and security firms.

Private Contractors and the Reconstruction of Iraq examines the controversial role of military contractors in the reconstruction of Iraq. When 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' was launched in March 2003, few, if any, of the Coalition's political leaders could have envisaged that within a few months the number of private contractors engaged to keep the troops supplied would exceed their actual combat strength. This alternative 'army' was not only to become the largest assemblage of contractors in living memory to accompany a military force into a war zone, but was also responsible for a fundamental transformation of how military logistics were delivered. This book explains how and why the US and UK governments became so dependent upon military contractors during the war in Iraq. It also examines the ramifications this new dependency will have on future military operations, as the conflict in Iraq has shown that private contractors are now indispensable to the attainment of both the military and political objectives of war. Finally, the book discusses what advantages and disadvantages these companies have brought to the reconstruction of Iraq, and what lessons need to be learned from this experience. This book will be of great interest to students of military and strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics and international security, and as well as policymakers and military professionals. Christopher Kinsey is a lecturer in international security at King's College London, Defence Studies Department, at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham. His previous publications include Corporate Soldiers and International Security: The Rise of Private Military Companies (Routledge: 2006)

Recent decades have seen an increasing reliance on private military contractors (PMCs) to provide logistical services, training, maintenance, and combat troops. In Outsourcing War, Amy E. Eckert examines the ethical implications involved in the widespread use of PMCs, and in particular questions whether they can fit within customary ways of understanding the ethical prosecution of warfare. Her concern is with the ius in bello (right conduct in war) strand of just war theory. Just war theorizing is generally built on the assumption that states, and states alone, wield a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Who holds responsibility for the actions of PMCs? What ethical standards might they be required to observe? How might deviations from such standards be punished? The privatization of warfare poses significant challenges because of its reliance on a statist view of the world. Eckert argues that the tradition of just war theory—which predates the international system of states—can evolve to apply to this changing world order. With an eye toward the practical problems of military command, Eckert delves into particular cases where PMCs have played an active role in armed conflict and derives from those cases the modifications necessary to apply just principles to new agents in the landscape of war.

Provides a behind-the-scenes look at America's civilian contractors in Iraq, following the activities of workers for MPRI and Crescent Security, two contracting firms who provide protection for diplomats, move convoys of precious materials, and help rebuild the infrastructure of the wartorn nation.

The conduct of armed conflict is increasingly being outsourced to private military and security companies, whose legal position remains unclear. This book identifies and analyses the human rights and humanitarian law framework applicable to these companies, examining how they can be held to account and how victims can obtain remedies.

The privatization of defence assets and the outsourcing of military services from the armed forces to the private sector is an increasing trend. This book approaches the issue of military privatization by linking it to the transformation of the defence industries since the early 1990s, and shows the extent to which many military functions and activities, ranging from military research to military consulting/training to operational support services, have already been outsourced in the US and in Europe. This detailed study provides new and updated information on the ongoing privatization of the defence sector and offers an original theoretical explanation as to why the most modern armed forces throughout the world have come increasingly to rely on private companies for nearly everything they do. Contributing to a better understanding of military privatization and its close connection to technological change, the book explains the complexity of the whole phenomenon and discusses its implications for national and international security.

The role of contractors in war is not new. The English Ordnance Department, which was responsible for supplying war materials to the King, is older than the British Army. Britain was no different from any other European country in using contractors to supply its overseas expeditions. From 1000 to 1800 virtually all European armies relied on contractors to support their war fighting efforts. Only when states started to move towards total war did the supply role of contractors diminish as militaries began to become self-sufficient. While it is recognized that different types of contractors now operate in the military’s operational space, this paper focuses on those supplying support functions to the military. These functions range from catering and laundry facilities, waste management, postal services, troop welfare and recreational activities to private security companies (PSCs). PSCs have had a significant impact on the ability of logistical contractors to deliver capability to the military in theater and in the case of the US military, PSCs are increasingly being seen as an alternative to troops employed in force protection roles such as guarding military camps and protecting convoys. By contracting out of these roles, PSCs influence – although not intentionally, it must be said – the military’s strategy in theater, freeing up soldiers, for example, who can then be redeployed for combat operations. This paper is divided into four parts: the first simply defines what is meant by war fighting and identifies which military tasks fall under the war-fighting banner or outside it in the case of logistical support. The second part gives a brief account of the role of contractors in support of military operations during the Cold War, which is widely seen as a period in which militaries were self-sufficient. However, the reality was somewhat different since it was during this period that contractors began to take on roles that in the past were deemed the responsibility of the military. What appeared different during the Cold War was that the contracting out of support functions was confined to home bases and had not yet reached the front line. The third part explains why states now feel the need to turn to contractors for support in expeditionary operations, while the final part examines the socio/political, economic and technological forces driving this change. It should also be noted that this paper is concerned mainly with the UK and US militaries, for the simple reason that these forces have gone the furthest in contracting out their logistical support in the operational space.