More than 20,000 private soldiers serve in Iraq, including at Fallujah and Abu Ghraib; from the Balkans to Central Asia, corporations now run the supply chain of US forces; an army for hire takes on rebel forces in West Africa, with diamond mines as the prize. In this book, P.W. Singer provides the first account of the military services industry and its broader implications, replete with case studies of such firms as Halliburton and Executive Outcomes. The privatization of warfare allows startling new capabilities and efficiencies in the ways that war is carried out. At the same time, however, the entrance of the profit motive onto the battlefield raises a series of troubling questions–for democracy, for ethics, for law, for human rights, and for national security.
AWARDS
Named Top Five Book of the Year in International Affairs by the Gelber Prize
Named Top Ten Summer Read by Businessweek
Winner of the 2004 Edward Said Book Award
Winner of the 2004 best policy book of the year by the American Political Science Association
