The Privatization of Military Affairs: A Historical Look into the Evolution of the Private Military Industry

Abstract

In the push to revolutionize military affairs, governments are turning to private companies to conduct many tasks that were once undertaken by the military alone. Anything from feeding troops to fighting on the front line can now be outsourced to highly advanced, corporate-structured private military firms (PMFs). Where the idea of nongovernmental actors participating in war is nothing new, the capabilities of today’s firms raise new questions and concerns while presenting innovative solutions to an array of international dilemmas. Thus, as the private military industry enhances its capabilities and becomes more frequently and deeply integrated in military affairs, its emergence remains highly controversial. Therefore, there must be public discourse regarding the issues surrounding private military firms as their presence on the world stage is already having a huge impact and will continue to do so far into the future. This article sets out to provide a revisionist historical look in to the evolution of the private military industry and their use by the modern state. First, the rise of the private military industry is placed in the context of a broader evolution of international relations and human history. Second, PMFs are defined and the evolution of the industry is shown through the lens of the United States’ changing defense paradigm.

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