Awesome. This is the kind of conversation we need to have out there, and I applaud David for his work on trying to start that conversation. And just a hint to the guys over at Small Wars Journal, or anyone else that claims to be students of this war and strategy. There are over 240,000 civilian contractors in this war, with 1,168 killed and over 37,000 injured. Why there is no mention of PMC’s/contractors and grand strategy in the same sentence, is beyond me. We are very much a part of this war, and we do have an impact on strategy for these wars and future wars. –Matt
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Private Military Contractors and U.S. Grand Strategy
10/15/2009
The debate over whether and how to utilize private military contractors (PMC) often seems like childish name calling, e.g. “You’re a mercenary.” Such rhetoric is silly and prevents people from facing underlying realities.
What nobody wants to discuss is that the U.S. government’s huge and growing reliance on private contractors constitutes an attempt to circumvent or evade public skepticism about the United States’ self-appointed role as global policeman. The U.S. government has assumed the role of guarantor of global stability at a time when the American public is unwilling to provide the resources necessary to support this strategy. Private contractors fill the gap between geopolitical goals and public means.
As the United States relies more heavily upon military contractors it reinforces the tendency to approach global crises in a unilateral, as opposed to multilateral manner. U.S. use of PMCs is inevitable until people grasp the key point: contracting is both part of war and part of maintaining a global military hegemonic presence.
Such a policy is not without problems. As Adam Smith wrote in the Wealth of Nations about his experience of the corporations that were contracted to perform British government services — such as the East India Company, the Halliburton of its day, left him too skeptical to suggest privatization: “These companies… have in the long-run proved, universally, either burdensome or useless.”
ISBN : 978 82 7288 324 8 • Isenberg Private Military Contractors PRIO Report 1-2009.pdf