As violence spreads in Iraq, many have been stunned by the
extensive roles that private firms now are playing in the
fighting. In seeking to understand exactly what was going
on, ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, The Economist, Fox News, The New
York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, PBS,
USA Today, and the Washington Post all turn to one source:
Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military
Industry.
Named among the year's top five books in international
affairs by the Gelber Prize, P.W. Singer's groundbreaking
book from Cornell University Press explores one of the most
interesting, but little understood developments in modern
warfare. Over the last decade, a global trade in hired
military services has emerged. Known as "privatized military
firms" (PMFs), these businesses range from small consulting
firms, who sell the advice of retired generals, to
transnational corporations that lease out wings of fighter
jets or battalions of commandos. Such firms number in the
hundreds. They have an estimated annual revenue of over $100
billion. And, they presently fill military roles in over
fifty countries, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. From
recent events in Iraq, where some 15,000 private military
contractors work on behalf of the coalition, including the
four men brutally killed in an ambush in Fallujah earlier
this year, to Latin America, where three American private
military contractors have been held captive by Colombian
rebels for the last 16 months, to Sub-Saharan Africa, where
private military personnel earlier this year were arrested
as part of an alleged coup plot in Zimbabwe and Equatorial
Guinea, these firms appear in the world's hotspots and
headlines again and again. Yet, until Corporate
Warriors, no book has opened up this powerful new
industry to the public eye.
Now released in paperback, Corporate Warriors
provides the first comprehensive analysis of the private
military industry. The book traces the firms' historic roots
in the mercenary outfits of the past and the more recent
underlying causes that led to their emergence at the end of
the Cold War. In a series of detailed company portraits,
Singer then describes how the industry operated and the
three sectors within the industry: how military provider
firms, like Executive Outcomes, a South African company made
up of ex-Apartheid fighters, offer front-line combat
services; how military consulting firms, like MPRI, a
Virginia-based firm staffed by U.S. Army veterans, provide
strategic and military training expertise for clients around
the world; and, finally, how military support firms, like
Vice President Cheney's former Halliburton-Brown & Root,
carry out multi-billion dollar military logistics and
maintenance services, including running the U.S. military's
supply train in Iraq! In fact, the book's portrait of how
exactly Halliburton got into the lucrative, but now
controversial, military support business has served as a
resource for investors, reporters, congressional
investigators, and soldiers alike.
Singer then explores the many implications of this industry,
ranging from their impact on military operations to their
possible roles in international peacekeeping. He analyzes
how the hopes for economy and efficiency duel with the risks
that come from outsourcing the most essential of government
functions, that of national security and soldiers' welfare.
The privatization of military services allows startling new
capabilities and efficiencies in the way that war is carried
out. However, as demonstrated in Iraq, the mix of the profit
motive with the fog of war raises a series of troubling
questions - for international affairs, for ethics, for
management, for civil-military relations, for international
law, for human rights, and, ultimately, for democracy. In
other words, when it comes to military responsibilities,
private companies' good may not always be to the public good.
Corporate Warriors is a hard-hitting analysis that
provides a fascinating first look inside this exciting, but
potentially dangerous new industry. Its research has been
featured by every single major news outlet in the United
States and covered by media over 20 different countries.
Easily accessible to general readers, the book provides a
critical but balanced look at the businesses behind the
headlines. With the continued expansion and growth of this
industry in the coming years, Corporate Warriors will be the
essential sourcebook for understanding how the private
military industry works and how governments must respond. As
one reviewer describes, "Many fine volumes about U.S.
foreign policy and world events have been published in
recent months. This one is something special. Corporate
Warriors might just be a paradigm shift. It may change the
way people look at history and analyze current events...a
must-read..."
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