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The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy
Yale University Press
February 2011
On Sale: January 25, 2011
256 pages ISBN: 0300168322 EAN: 9780300168327 Paperback
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Non-Fiction
International relations scholar Allison Stanger shows how
contractors became an integral part of American foreign
policy, often in scandalous ways—but also maintains that
contractors aren’t the problem; the absence of good
government is. Outsourcing done right is, in fact,
indispensable to America’s interests in the information age. Stanger makes three arguments. · The outsourcing of U.S. government activities is far
greater than most people realize, has been very poorly
managed, and has inadvertently militarized American foreign
policy; · Despite this mismanagement, public-private
partnerships are here to stay, so we had better learn to do
them right; · With improved transparency and accountability, these
partnerships can significantly extend the reach and
effectiveness of U.S. efforts abroad. The growing use of private contractors predates the Bush
Administration, and while his era saw the practice rise to
unprecedented levels, Stanger argues that it is both
impossible and undesirable to turn back the clock and simply
re-absorb all outsourced functions back into government.
Through explorations of the evolution of military
outsourcing, the privatization of diplomacy, our
dysfunctional homeland security apparatus, and the slow
death of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
Stanger shows that the requisite public-sector expertise to
implement foreign policy no longer exists. The successful
activities of charities and NGOs, coupled with the growing
participation of multinational corporations in development
efforts, make a new approach essential. Provocative and
far-reaching, One Nation Under Contract presents a bold
vision of what that new approach must be.
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