Private Military Contractors and U.S. Grand Strategy,

David Isenberg, an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project, has written an important new report about the use of contractors "to circumvent ... public skepticism about the United States' self-appointed role as global policeman." The report addresses issues that Americans clearly prefer not to think about, but need to. Indeed, there are many in and out of government who would prefer that we not think about these issues.

The report, "Private Military Contractors and U.S. Grand Strategy," is written for the International Peace Research Institute (also identified as PRIO) in Oslo, Norway.

David has long studied the executive branch's use of contractors to perform services once considered the exclusive role of the federal government. He is the author of "Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq" (Praeger, 2008). He addresses issues far beyond just the dollar cost of these contractors; they go to the heart of the question of America's role in the world, and what it should and should not be. It is an important report.

The full report can be found at http://www.prio.no/Research-and-Publications/Publication/?oid=49870671,
and the executive summary appears below.

THE DEBATE OVER WHETHER and how to utilize private military and security
contractors generates much heat but not much light. In many case the level of discourse
resembles children's name calling, i.e., "You're a mercenary." "No I'm
not." Such rhetoric is silly and distracting and prevents people from facing underlying realities
which are rarely dealt with publicly.

The truth is that the United States is by far the world's largest consumer of such services.
While contractors have worked with the government since the country's founding their
role has grown as Washington has reduced the size of the U.S. military in the post-Cold
War era, and as those forces have become strained by the demands of U.S. grand strategy.
This did not happen by accident. Decades ago the government made a deliberate decision
to both privatize and outsource military functions and activities that had traditionally
been done in the public sector.
One can argue for and against such contractors but what nobody wants to discuss is that
the U.S. government's huge and growing reliance on private contractors constitutes an attempt
to circumvent or evade public skepticism about the United States' self-appointed
role as global policeman. The U.S. government has assumed the role of guarantor of
global stability at a time when the American public is unwilling to provide the resources
necessary to support this strategy. Private contractors fill the gap between geopolitical
goals and public means
The low visibility and presumed low cost of private contractors appeals to those who favor
a global U.S. military presence, but fear that such a strategy cannot command public
support. And by using contractors the United States also shift responsibility and blame for
its actions.
As the United States relies more heavily upon military contractors to support its role as
world hegemon, it reinforces the tendency to approach global crises in a unilateral, as opposed
to multilateral manner, further ensuring that the burdens will be carried disproportionately
by U.S. taxpayers. U.S. use of PMCs is inevitable until people grasp the key
point, which is that that contracting is both part of war and part of maintaining a global
military hegemonic presence.



A different link to the full report is http://www.prio.no/sptrans/-1720057691/Isenberg%20Private%20Military%20Contractors%20PRIO%20Report%201-2009.pdf