Hey everyone, here is another cool book just in time for the holidays. David has done a lot for this industry, and he is good people. I have yet to read this book, and I am excited to get my hands on it. Check it out. –Head Jundi
Edit: You can also get 50% off of the price of the book with this code. Thanks to David for the tip!
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“David Isenberg has been a tireless chronicler of the birth, growth and rise of the private military phenomena. Shadow Force is a new addition to the “must have” list of books on the privatization of violence.”–Robert Young Pelton, author of Licensed to Kill
“David Isenberg was among the very first serious researchers to recognize a unique industry among the many firms providing services to governments in conflict in post-conflict environments. While others dismissed the phenomenon or soon departed into populist conjecture, David grasped the history and recognized both the long-term value and sober implications of this maturing sector. His research and articles in the mid 1990s helped stimulate a cottage industry of scholastic and journalistic research on the topic-often more absurd than serious. No one else considers this topic with the same breadth of knowledge or rational understanding, and few are as good at discerning genuine areas of concern from great gobs of absurd speculation.”–Doug Brooks, Founder and Director of the International Peace Operations Association
“They are not mercenaries and they are not soldiers. So what are they? That is the question increasing numbers of people, both government officials and the general public, have been asking since the United States invaded Iraq. In this book David Isenberg, one of the earliest and most perceptive observers of the private security contracting industry explains who is operating in Iraq, their benefits and liabilities, and their impact both nationally and globally. If you have to read just one book on the subject make it this one.”–Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, Senior Advisor, Center for Defense Information
Product Description
From their limited use in China during World War II, for example, to their often clandestine use in Vietnam ferrying supplies before the war escalated in 1964 and 1965 when their role became more prominent-and public-private military contractors (PMCs) have played made essential contributions to the success and failures of the military and United States. Today, with an emphasis on force restructuring mandated by the Pentagon, the role of PMCs, and their impact on policy-making decisions is at an all time peak.
This work analyzes that impact, focusing specifically on PMCs in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Isenberg dissects their responsibilities, the friction that exists between contractors and military commanders, problems of protocol and accountability, as well as the problems of regulation and control that PMC companies create for domestic politics. Isenberg organizes his work thematically, addressing all facets of PMCs in the current conflict from identifying who the most influential companies are and how they got to that point, to the issues that the government, military, and contractors themselves face when they take the field. He also analyzes the problem of command, control, and accountability. It is no secret that PMCs have been the source of consternation and grief to American military commanders in the field. As they work to establish more routine protocols in the field, however, questions are also being raised about the role of the contractors here at home. The domestic political arena is perhaps the most crucial battleground on which the contractors must have success. After all, they make their corporate living off of taxpayer dollars, and as such, calls for regulation have resonated throughout Washington, D.C., growing louder as the profile of PMCs increases during the current conflict.
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