Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Contracting a Counterinsurgency? Implications for US Policy in Iraq and Beyond

2007; Routledge; Volume: 18; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09592310701778258

1743-9558

Christopher Spearin,

Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

Abstract Washington's growing reliance upon international private security companies (PSCs) will lead to these firms becoming prominent vehicles in the prosecution of the counterinsurgency in Iraq. This shift, however, risks labeling PSCs as mercenaries and presents considerable challenges regarding the control of non-state violence. Moreover, tradeoffs exist regarding the different nationalities of PSC personnel. Utilization of personnel from the developed world risks compromising the capabilities of Special Operations Forces. Additionally, shifts in casualty recognition amongst US policymakers and the media suggest that the private option is becoming politically salient and thus less useful. Many developing world states are increasingly concerned about how the global outsourcing of security sector expertise risks their stability and ability to execute coherent policy. Finally, the employment of Iraqis in PSCs sends mixed messages to the Iraqi populace about the need for and the effectiveness of a cohesive and responsible indigenous security sector. Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole feud to private industry. [Catch-22 – Major Milo Minderbinder] Notes 1. T. Christian Miller, ‘Contractors Outnumber Troops in Iraq’, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2007. 2. Brian Wingfield, ‘Winning the War’, 2 Feb. 2007, http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2007/02/07/contractors-iraq-pentagon-biz-wash-cx_bw_0208contractors.html accessed 10 Feb. 2007. 3. Brian Brady, ‘“Mercenaries” to fill Iraq troop gap’, 25 Feb. 2007, http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id = 299002007 accessed 1 March 2007. 4. Steve Fainaru, ‘Iraq Contractors Face Growing Parallel War’, Washington Post, 16 June 2007. 5. See the assessment made in Robert Young Pelton, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006) p.165. 6. James Cameron, ‘Privates on Parade: Private Security Companies in Post-Conflict Situations’, World Today, May 2007 p.12. 7. Fainaru, ‘Iraq Contractors’. 8. Alan Bell quoted in James R. Davis, Fortune's Warriors: Private Armies and the New World Order (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 2000) p.17. 9. Fainaru, ‘Iraq Contractors’. 10. Deborah Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) p.220. 11. Max Boot, ‘The Struggle to Transform the Military’, Foreign Affairs Vol.84 (March/April 2005) pp.103–18; Jeffrey Record, ‘The Limits and Temptations of America's Conventional Military Primacy’, Survival Vol.47 (Spring 2005) pp.33–50; Frederick W. Kagan, ‘The US Military's Manpower Crisis’, Foreign Affairs Vol.85 (July/Aug. 2006) pp.97–110; Frank L. Jones, ‘Rolling the Dice of War: Military necessity and nation building’, International Journal Vol.61 (Autumn 2006) pp.945–58; Michael R. Gordon, ‘Break Point? Iraq and America's Military Forces’, Survival Vol.48 (Dec. 2006) pp.67–81. 12. Michael C. Desch, ‘Bush and the Generals’, Foreign Affairs Vol.86 (May/June 2007) pp.97–108; James T. Quinlivan, ‘Force Requirements in Stability Operations’, Parameters Vol.25 (Winter 1995), http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/1995/quinliv.htm accessed 1 July 2007. 13. Quinlivan, ‘Force Requirements’. 14. Karen DeYoung, ‘Powell Says US Losing in Iraq, Calls for Drawdown by Mid-2007’, Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2006; Bradley Graham, ‘General Says Army Reserve is Becoming a “Broken’ Force”', Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2005. 15. P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003) p.74. 16. Young. Licensed to Kill p.178. 17. Christopher Spearin, ‘Special Operations Forces a Strategic Resource: Public and Private Divides’, Parameters Vol.36 (Winter 2006–2007) pp.58–70. 18. United States Department of Defense, 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, 6 Feb. 2006 p.75. 19. Richard Lardner, ‘Few Commandos Stay For Bonus’, Tampa Tribune, 7 Sept. 2005. 20. Singer, Corporate Warriors p.210. 21. ‘US Army: “We will respond” to contractor killings’, 1 April 2004, http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/01/iraq.main/ accessed 1 July 2007; Young. Licensed to Kill pp.118, 139. 22. United States Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, ‘Deaths of US Department of State Contractors in Iraq’, 24 Jan 2007. 23. See, for instance, the efforts of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/iraq.shtml accessed 1 July 2007. 24. Private Security Companies in Iraq – A Project for Excellence in Journalism Study, 21 June 2007, http://journalism.org/node/6153 accessed 1 July 2007. 25. In August 2007, the United States Department of Labor reported that the number of contractor casualties in Iraq had exceeded 1,000. These numbers did not, however, indicate the nationalities of these individuals or whether they worked in armed or unarmed positions. Additionally, this figure was likely not entirely accurate as not all fatalities were reported to the US Department of Labor. David Ivanovich, ‘Information incomplete on contractors in Iraq’, Houston Chronicle, 8 Aug. 2007. 26. David Kilcullen, ‘Counter-insurgency Redux’, Survival Vol.48 (Dec. 2006) p.121. 27. Jonathan Franklin, ‘US Contractor Recruits Guards for Iraq in Chile’, Guardian, 5 March 2004. 28. International Peace Operations Association, ‘The Use of International Employees in the Peace and Stability Industry’, 5 Jan. 2005, http://www.ipoaonline.org/news_detailhtml.asp?catID = 4&docID = 134 accessed 1 July 2007. 29. This list of other developing world countries with representation in the ranks of PSCs includes Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Lebanon, Nepal (Gurkhas), Nicaragua, Philippines, Uganda. Other personnel come from former Second World countries, such as Croatia, Serbia, and Ukraine. 30. For a general critique of the liberal approach, see Andrew Hurrell and Ngaire Woods, ‘Globalisation and Inequality’, Millennium Vol.24 (Summer 1995) pp.447–70. 31. Efrat Elron, Boas Shamir, and Eyal Ben-Ari, ‘Why Don't They Fight Each Other? Cultural Diversity and Operational Unity in Multinational Forces’, in Democratic Societies and Their Armed Forces: Israel in Comparative Context, Stuart A. Cohen (ed.) (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 2000) p.116. 32. Barry Buzan, People, States, and Fear, 2nd edition (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) Chapter 2; Kalevi Holsti, The State, War, and the State of War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) Chapters 5–6. 33. Howard H. Lentner, Power and Politics in Globalization: The Indispensable State (New York: Routledge, 2004) p.129. See also Mohammed Ayoob, ‘The Security Problematic of the Third World’, World Politics Vol.43 (Jan. 1991) pp.257–83; Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968). 34. This is emphasized in Robert Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, ‘Why Africa's Weak States Persist: The Empirical and the Juridical in Statehood’, World Politics Vol.35 (Oct. 1982) pp.1–24. 35. Daniela Estrada and Gustavo González, ‘UN on the Offensive Against Iraq Mercenaries’, 15 July 2007, http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews = 38537 accessed 30 July 2007. 36. Jeremy Greenstock, ‘Private Security Companies in an Insecure World’, RUSI Journal Vol.151 (Dec. 2006) p.42. 37. Gerald Templer quoted in John Cloake, Templer: Tiger of Malaya (London: Harrap, 1985) p.262. 38. ‘Privatizing War’, International Herald Tribune, 21 April 2004. 39. ‘Complex irregular warfare: the privatisation of force’, Military Balance 2006 (London: Institute for International Studies, 2006) p.414. 40. Sean McFate, ‘The Art and Aggravation of Vetting in Post-Conflict Environments’, Military Review Vol.87 (July–Aug. 2007) pp.79–87; Thomas Catan and Stephen Fidler, ‘The Military Can't Provide Security’, Financial Times, 29 Sept. 2003. 41. Robert Baer, ‘Iraq's Mercenary King,’ Vanity Fair, April 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/spicer200704? accessed 1 July 2007; David Isenberg, ‘Protecting Iraq's precarious pipelines’, Asia Times, 23 Sept. 2004, http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI24Ak01.html accessed 1 July 2007. See also the letter responses to Isenberg at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FK06Aa01.html accessed 1 July 2007. 42. United States Government Accountability Office, ‘High-Level DOD Action Needed to Address Long-standing Problems with Management and Oversight of Contractors Supporting Deployed Forces’, GAO-07-145, Dec. 2006, i.