Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

Provides a sweeping survey of the work of MPRI, Airscan, Dyncorp, Brown and Root, and scores of other firms that can variously put troops in the field, build and run military bases, train guerrilla forces, conduct air surveillance, mount coups, stave off coups, and put back together the countries that wars have just destroyed.

The creeping military-industrial complex about which President Dwight Eisenhower warned us five decades ago has reached critical mass. In fact, P. W. Singer, a security analyst at the Brookings Institution, suggests that Ike would be flabbergasted by the recent proliferation of privatized military firms and their influence on public policy both here and abroad. Calling them the corporate evolution of old-fashioned mercenaries, Singer's illuminating new book, says they provide the service side of war rather than weapons.

Large-scale wars may still be the sole provenance of sovereign governments, but many countries are now quietly outsourcing smaller-scale functions to privatized military firms (PMFs), which do not carry the same political weight as national troops. These firms might build camps, provide supplies, or furnish combat troops, technical assistance, or expert consultants for training programs. This is a new area for policymakers to debate and scholars to explore.... This portrait of the military services industry is well documented with many footnotes and a lengthy bibliography.

Provides a thoughtful, engaging critique of the U.S. government's growing dependence on private companies to wage war. Mercenaries in the employ of the Pentagon have made news with every new controversy in Iraq, from the ambush that sparked the siege of Fallujah to the prisoner abuses in Abu Ghraib prison and the raid on Ahmed Chalabi's offices. The involvement of those for-profit fighters has inspired plenty of political vitriol, much of it directed at Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former employer. But there are some less-well-known players here, too: DynCorp, MPRI, and ICI Oregon, which do everything from database work to intelligence-gathering.

The first notable book on the subject.

A must read for anyone interested in the art of war, Corporate Warriors is a fascinating analysis of a new, often secretive, global industry. Marked by impressive research, this path-breaking study describes a pattern of increasing reliance on private military firms by individuals, corporations, humanitarian groups, governments, and international organizations. This is a masterful book that will appeal to students, scholars, policymakers, and lay readers alike.

After reading this book, it is impossible to see the landscape of insurgencies, civil wars, and inter-state wars the same way again. Peter Singer's book is a rare find: a study of the breakdown of the state monopoly on war that challenges basic assumptions in international relations theory; an exploration of the many different ways in which privatized military firms pose both problems and opportunities for policymakers; and a fascinating read for anyone interested in the changing nature of both international security and international politics.