Contractors and War

The US military is no longer based on a Cold War self-sufficient model. Today's armed forces are a third smaller than they were during the Cold War, and yet they are expected to do as much if not more than they did during the Cold War. As a result, transformation is occurring rapidly and radically in the way the US government expects the military to conduct both expeditionary and stabilization operations. Much of that transformation is increasingly contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterwards. This book explains the reasons behind this transformation and looks to the future to assess how the private sector will help shape US military operations in 'fourth generation' expeditionary combat and stabilization situations. It highlights how the decision to turn to the market for these services will affect the military's capacity for future operations, while for contractors the decision represents opportunity, challenge, and some risk. With contributors drawn from a mix of policy, legislative, and academic backgrounds, the book not only lays out the philosophical argument supporting the use of the private sector in military and stabilization operations, but also provides policy guidance for this approach.

Christopher Kinsey is Reader in Business International Security at King's College London, based in the Defence Studies Department at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Malcolm Hugh Patterson teaches international law and international relations at Macquarie University in Sydney.