Private Military Companies (catch all)

[Madhu]

I posted the following link in a previous thread:

http://www.amazon.com/War-Business-T.../dp/0754671674

I've not read the following but it seems of interest (was it mentioned in the article? Read it too quickly to remember):

http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Warr.../dp/0801474361

Like anything else, I suppose there is both good and bad when looking at the situation clinically and within the larger phenomenon of global outsourcing, long supply chains, etc.

Jobs are important and I don't begrudge anyone a job. There's a comment that is going to infuriate some people reading but I'm betting that not all jobs fall into the negative stereotypes about PMC's. The larger phenomenon worries, I have to admit, especially contracting out intellectual duties.

The other thing that worries is how many officials responsible either for policy or for military advice (retired civilian and military) cycle back and forth between various consulting groups, even for nations with which we are involved in some sort of complicated intervention.

I sometimes think the focus on culture and transnationalism misses the mark - the nation state and its strange licit and illicit connections are as much a part of what we are seeing as anything else.

There is a tendency toward trying to fit the world into the latest theory instead of simply looking at the world as it is, as best as we are able.