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From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Sierra Leone is a former British colony located in West Africa. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Sierra Leone is a former British colony located in West Africa. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every American Should Read This!,
By
This review is from: Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Paperback)
This book should be on the essential reading list for any class on American politics, ethics, or foreign policy. When I took military ethics at Texas A&M University, Manuel Davenport walked into class the first day and asked, "What is a military officer?" In unison, the class responded, "Managers of violence." As one of two 'nonregs' in the class, that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. In a piece Professor Davenport wrote in Army (May 1980), "Professionals or Hired Guns? Loyalties are the Difference," he noted the peculiar demands of the military profession and what sets it apart. To be a mercenary, a hired killer, is tantamount to being a paid murderer. That is not what the profession is about. For mercenaries, the client is a private entity, and loyalties are to the employer, not the nation, and certainly not humanity. To outsource our defense is to put it in the hands of people whose motive is profit, not the honor of public service, respect for the republic, or the protection of their the country and people they love. Dwight Eisenhower is surely spinning in his grave! Tragically, this is where we are going: we have outsourced our republic. The government no longer has a monopoly on the use of force, even in our own military operations. Now, private companies are calling the shots. We have even outsourced the ROTC on 200 campuses! Bremer's personal guards, and much of our intelligence is in private hands. Who is really in charge? As the abuses in Iraq demonstrate, there is a reason to have military officers. If not, we would simply empty our prisons on the enemy and go home. Hiring mercenaries is the downfall of any republic. What will happen when the mercenaries out-gun the United States Army? Who will we turn to then? Brown & Root? Blackwater? What if our enemies outbid us? What if terrorists pay more? We're being sold out! Joe Adams, Ph.D.
5.0 out of 5 stars
probably great,
By "thmnshw4" (afds) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Paperback)
I have not read the book but the author was on a t.v. special called soldiers for hire. while mercenaries have some good purposes that the show adressed, the author gave some startleing facts about private soldiers (or civilian contractors) in our military. about one in 10 americans serving in iraq are private and they are able to just leave when they decide they don't feel like fighting anymore. there is a 30% dropout rate amoung contractors in iraq. some of them even control the newest technology, like unmanned aircraft. private soldiers are less effective than normal soldiers because they have less effective leadership, less backup, and less resourses. i definatly need to check out this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Steps in Studies of Privatization,
By
This review is from: Corporate Warriors (Hardcover)
Why does it take PW Singer to give us an accurate history of the Sierra Leone war and the role of private warriors? Why is he the first to inform us that ROTC has been privatized since 1996? Perhaps because the media does not grasp the full consequences of Al Gore's "reinventing government" movement of the late 1990s. Singer unveils so much that is unseen in a mere few hundred pages, the head spins.Granted, this only is a first-pass analysis of Pentagon privatization. We need to understand what happened when NRO and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency turned over space imaging to the private sector. We need to know what Northrop-Grumman gained when it took over overseas-base construction and management for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2003-04. We need to grasp the changes in NSA and NRO that took place when most intelligence processing was outsourced to Raytheon, LockMart, etc. Singer does not get into these latter fields. However, he is the first to recognize that the consolidation of the "big iron" defense contractors, like LockMart, Boeing, Northrop, is only half the story. It is far more important to understand what SAIC, L3/MPRI, Halliburton/KBRS, and the new consulting firms are doing, as they represent the military contractors of the future. Here's hoping this book moves into paperback, as it surely deserves a wider audience.
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