Some have claimed that “War is too important to be left to the generals,” but P. W. Singer asks “What about the business executives?” Breaking out of the guns-for-hire mold of traditional mercenaries, corporations now sell skills and services that until recently only state militaries possessed. Their products range from trained commando teams to strategic advice from generals. This new “Privatized Military Industry” encompasses hundreds of companies, thousands of employees, and billions of dollars in revenue. Whether as proxies or suppliers, such firms have participated in wars in Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and Latin America. More recently, they have become a key element in U.S. military operations. Private corporations working for profit now sway the course of national and international conflict, but the consequences have been little explored.
In this book, Singer provides the first account of the military services industry and its broader implications. Corporate Warriors includes a description of how the business works, as well as portraits of each of the basic types of companies: military providers that offer troops for tactical operations; military consultants that supply expert advice and training; and military support companies that sell logistics, intelligence, and engineering.
In an updated edition of P. W. Singer's classic account of the military services industry and its broader implications, the author describes the continuing importance of that industry in the Iraq War. This conflict has amply borne out Singer's argument that the privatization of warfare allows startling new capabilities and efficiencies in the ways that war is carried out. At the same time, however, Singer finds that the introduction of the profit motive onto the battlefield raises troubling questions—for democracy, for ethics, for management, for human rights, and for national security.
Reviews
"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.”—Business Week, 28 June 2004
"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."—Christian Science Monitor, 14 August 2003
"The first notable book on the subject." —The Financial Times, 11 August 2003
"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."—Library Journal, July 2003
"Provides a sweeping survey of the work of MPRI, Airscan, Dyncorp, Brown & 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 Atlantic Monthly, October 2003
"By most estimates, civilian contractors are handling as much as 20 percent to 30 percent of essential military support services in Iraq. Scores of PMCs are active all across the country, but Kellogg Brown & Root in particular has become indispensable to the global projection of military might in this unsettled age. 'It is no exaggeration to say that wherever the U.S. military goes, so goes Brown & Root, ' says P. W. Singer, a Brookings Institution fellow and author of Corporate Warriors. . . . The new military-industrial complex seems to pose at least as much danger to itself as it does to society. Contractor no-shows in Iraq have jolted U.S. military planners who expected a repeat of Brown & Root's yeomanlike performance in the Balkans. Says . . . Singer, 'Now that the Army's eyes have been opened up on this, they are thinking about other scenarios."—Business Week, 15 September 2003
"A security analyst at the Brookings Institution, Singer raises disturbing new issues in this comprehensive analysis of a post-Cold War phenomenon: private companies offering specialized military services for hire. . . . Singer takes pains to establish the improvements in capability and effectiveness privatization allows, ranging from saving money to reducing human suffering by ending small-scale conflicts. He is, however, far more concerned with privatization's negative implications. . . . Singer recommends increased oversight as a first step in regulation, an eminently reasonable response to a still imperfectly understood development in war making."—Publishers Weekly, 21 April 2003
"Contractors are performing 'the entire spectrum of military services,' says . . . Singer. . . . He says U.S. civilians in conflicts around the world do everything from handling mail services and feeding troops to training foreign troops and devising war games. Most are retired military personnel or former special forces."—Christian Science Monitor, 3 September 2003
"It is clear that civilian contractors will be a significant feature in America's military landscape in the twenty-first century. Only by learning about this vast and rapidly expanding industry will citizens and lawmakers develop some measure of oversight and control over the shadow army. To that end, Corporate Warriors is a bold first step."—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Review of Books, 12 August 2004
"If you want to learn more about the private military firm industry (and the policy issues associated with it), you will want to read this book."—Steve Jarenn, Contract Management, September 2003
"Many fine volumes about U.S. foreign policy and world events have been published in recent months. This one is something special. Corporate Warriors might just be a paradigm shift. It may change the way people look at history and analyze current events. . . . Until P. W. Singer, no reporter showed just how widespread PMFs have become and how rapidly they are expanding. One result is that today, 'plowshares are more easily beaten into swords.' Corporate Warriors should be required reading for any college student studying history, sociology, political science, or international relations. But Singer's volume is also a must-read for any member of Congress who wants to make informed decisions about foreign policy in the foreseeable future."—Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail, 31 August 2003
"The unprecedented number of civilian contractors working closely with the U.S. military in Iraq has attracted considerable attention in recent months. But this development merely reflects a larger trend toward reliance on the private sector, including the increasing use of off-the-shelf technologies and a growing readiness to contract our support systems to civilians. In the most thorough analysis yet of this phenomenon, now worth some $100 billion a year globally, Singer acknowledges that this practice can improve efficiency in the military but also raises questions about the tensions between patriotism and the profit motive and the implications of having key personnel who approach danger differently than professional soldiers. Private companies are even taking on combat roles, and they often heavily influence developing-world conflicts, most notably in Africa—although they do not always choose their clients with care."—Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003
"Provides the first comprehensive, and by far the best, analysis of the emerging field of private military companies (PMCs), often derogatorily referred to as corporate mercenaries, whose role in international security affairs has become increasingly high profile over the past decade. . . Singer's book [is] an indispensable guide to a world that is both new and, unavoidably, murky."—Asia Times, 20 December 2003
"P. W. Singer's excellent book on private military enterprises will set the standard for works on the phenomenon in the future. Not only does it set out a clear, yet subtle, analytic framework, it also deftly sets out the plethora of issues that emerge as a result of the increasing privatization of military functions, in the context of numerous well-documented examples. The role of private military actors historically is also well accounted for, setting the context of contemporary privatization, and further demonstrating that there is not a timeless structure of global violence. . . . One of the best attributes of Singer's book is the combination of an exemplary analytic framework with a thorough analysis of the implications of the industry."—Bryan Mabee, International Affairs, October 2003
"Singer, a security analyst at the Brookings Institution, presents a study of the expanding role of private corporations into the state's legitimate monopoly of violence, and in so doing forces the reader to rethink the fundamental tenets of realist international theory. . . . With the current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, Singer's book is a timely and fascinating account of the rise of the modern private military. Written for academics and policy-makers, Corporate Warriors is readily accessible to the general reader. . . . Highly recommended."—E.C. Dolman, Choice, February 2004
"P. W. Singer's Corporate Warriors, an analysis of the rise of privatized military companies, is one of those rare books that is even more timely now than it was when it was being written. . . . Ultimately, as Singer suggests, these are global firms that will require global regulation . . . Singer acknowledges that any workable system will take 'time and political will' to pull together, but his thoughts on how to begin the process merit consideration. As he suggests in his conclusion, ‘War is far too important to be left to private industry.'" —Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2004
"Corporate Warriors breaks new ground as the first serious study of a decade-old phenomenon that evolves with each merger and absorption of the PMI into a global conglomerate. It should be required reading for military professionals and anyone else concerned about the unfolding of our American experiment in civilian control of the military and the state control of force."—Air & Space Power Journal, Spring 2004
"According to Peter W. Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Corporate Warriors, published last year, 'We're turning the lifeblood of our defense over to the marketplace.'"—Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, 16 & 23 February 2004
"[Corporate Warriors is] a book that I cannot recommend too highly. . . . Nor is there any evidence that P.M.F.s do the work--i.e., defend the nation--better than the armed services, and a lot of reason to believe that they make the country not only more vulnerable to attack but to defeat. I repeat: vulnerable to defeat. P.M.F. personnel have taken the place of what were once rear-echelon support troops who sometimes have been called upon to drop their soup ladles and screwdrivers and grab their weapons. Mr. Singer points out that this is what happened at the Battle of the Bulge, as well as what happened 50 years later to American forces at Mogadishu in Somalia."—Nicholas Von Hoffman, The New York Observer, 2 March 2004
“‘This is a trend that is growing and Iraq is the high point of the trend,' said Peter Singer, a security analyst at Washington's Brookings Institution. 'This is a sea change in the way we prosecute warfare. There are historical parallels, but we haven't seen them for 250 years.' Mr. Singer argues that for the first time in the history of the modern nation state, governments are surrendering one of the essential and defining attributes of statehood, the state's monopoly on the legitimate use of force."—Ian Traynor, The Guardian, 10 December 2003
"It is rare in the field of international security to find a new book dealing with a subject that hasn't already been covered to death. It is even more rare when that book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the subject and promises to be the gold standard of analysis for years to come, a la Samuel Huntington's The Soldier and the States. And, most unusual of all, is when said book was formerly a Ph.D. thesis and is published by a university press. Congratulations then to Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution, whose book Corporate Warriors . . . wins the trifecta."—David Isenberg, Asia Times, 20 December 2003
"In this fascinating and important [book], P. W. Singer demonstrates how privatized military firms (PMFs) have become increasingly important suppliers of intelligence, logistical support, expertise (in the form of consulting), and even frontline combat power. . . . Singer's chapters on the causes of the rise of privatized security and on the effects of the industry on alliance behavior and the empowerment of nonstate actors are intriguing and will likely be the source of much debate."—Spencer D. Bakich, Virginia Quarterly Review, 80:1
"As Halliburton helped out in Haiti, Somalia, and other places marked by conflict, military planners grew increasingly enthusiastic about handing noncombat tasks to civilian contractors. . . . For Halliburton, such work amounts to 'the opening of an enormous new market,' says P. W. Singer, a Brookings Institution analyst and author of the 2003 book Corporate Warriors. In most cases, military planners now assume that if the U.S. embarks on a major intervention, civilian contractors such as Halliburton's KBR Services unit will come along to handle logistics."—George Anders and Susan Warren, Wall Street Journal, 19 January 2004
“P. W. Singer’s Corporate Warriors is a comprehensive analysis of the political economy of the contemporary private military/security sector. Singer calls for an imaginative and intelligent real-world response to an important but increasingly complex and controversial phenomenon. . . . Corporate Warriors makes a compelling argument for an urgent reappraisal of the private military sector.”—Paul Cornish, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 10 June 2005
“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.”—Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
“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.”—Stephanie G. Neuman, Director of the Comparative Defense Studies Program, Columbia University
