Contractors and War: The Transformation of United States’ Expeditionary Operations (Stanford Security Studies)

Overview of American government expeditionary operations utilizing private contractors / Robert Mandel -- Attitudes on the ground : what soldiers think about civilian contractors / Ryan Kelty & Darcy Schnack -- Looking beyond Iraq : contractors in U.S. global activities / Renee de Nevers -- The elephant in the room / Bill Flavin -- Sharing the same space : the evolving relationship between U.S. NGOs, battlefield contractors and U.S. armed forces / Sam Worthington -- PMSCS and risk in counterinsurgency warfare / Kateri Carmola -- Contractors and the law / Geoffrey Corn -- Contractors' wars and the Commission on Wartime Contracting / Allison Stanger -- Private contractors, public consequences : the need for an effective criminal justice framework / David Price -- How to decide when a contractor source is better to use than a government source / Frank Camm -- Reforming the US approach to stabilization and reconstruction operations / Stuart Bowen -- Contractors supporting military operations : many challenges remain / Jacques Gansler & William Lucyshyn. The U.S. 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 are expected to do as much if not more than they did during those years. As a result, a transformation is occurring in the way the U.S. government expects the military to conduct operations—with much of that transformation contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterwards. Contractors and War explains the reasons behind this transformation and evaluates how the private sector will shape and be shaped by future operations. The authors are drawn from a range of policy, legislative, military, legal, and academic backgrounds. They lay out the philosophical arguments supporting the use of contractors in combat and stabilization operations and present a spectrum of arguments that support and criticize emergent private sector roles. The book provides fresh policy guidance to those who will research, direct, and carry out future deployments. This book examines the impact of contractors on the American way of war.