Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Abstract
In this Article, we will examine the world order implications of combat privatization through the prism of the world constitutive process. This process is one of continuing communication and collaboration that examines, refines, and allocates competence in the international system. The process of contextual mapping might shed light on the terms associated with, and concepts communicated by, privatized military combat, which might be better understood when the contexts in which they are used are illuminated in a discriminating manner. Their multiple meanings are given coherence when we appreciate the divergent contexts within which they are used. To develop the appropriate predicate for contextual mapping, we recognize that, notwithstanding the various nuanced meanings attached to the concept of privatized military combat-as an outsourcing of national security responsibilities, as a part of a nation-building campaign to bring stability to a weak or failed state, as a mechanism to subvert congressional oversight, as a pretext to channel money to certain corporations, and more, we can nevertheless distill points of reference of sufficient conceptual generality to give coherence to the appropriate description of this form of outsourcing in the context of contemporary international law and international relations.
Aspects of combat privatization that are salient to this Article include the carrying out of covert operations; supplementing war zone needs; appraising risks associated with certain combat zones; destroying weapons systems; supplying intelligence to secure particular sites, including local or provisional government buildings and facilities of public importance; creating and disseminating surveillance propaganda; training local military forces, as well as police or paramilitaries; procuring weapons; providing technological support, including cyber security; supplying strategic transportation; and various other logistical and supplemental support for all branches of the armed forces.
Recommended Citation
Winston P. Nagan & Craig Hammer,The Rise of Outsourcing in Modern Warfare : Sovereign Power, Private Military Actors, and the Constitutive Process, 60 Me. L. Rev. 429 (2008), available at http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/378