Introduction
One of the most significant developments in recent times in international relations has been the outsourcing to private companies of government functions, such as military services, that were previously the domain of citizen armies under the control of the state. A monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is one of the key features that sovereignty is based on and this shift towards outsourcing violence represents a significant change to sovereignty. The reason for the shift to outsourcing is due to a desire to reduce conventional standing forces while still having the option to call on specialist forces when required. In Iraq the reasons for using private contractors have expanded to include minimising the political risk associated with sending large numbers of soldiers to war, as well as the political benefit of minimising the number of soldiers killed, since contractors’ deaths go largely unnoticed. Private Military Firms (PMFs) also have an enabling effect because they enable policy makers to frequently undertake tasks that would otherwise be impossible, due to the potential political ramifications that would come from initiating certain military actions (Singer, 2007b, p. IV). The Iraq war has seen a dramatic rise in the use of private contractors for virtually all functions of war, from supplying meals and accommodation to the soldiers to being engaged in lengthy fire-fights against the insurgents and militias. This privatisation of war raises serious questions that have only very recently begun to be addressed. This dissertation aims to investigate the reason why the use of private military firms in Iraq has been so problematic.
Many of the major failures in Iraq have at least partial involvement of PMFs and some of the most serious incidents have arisen directly from the actions of contractors. This was seen in Fallujah where it was a Blackwater convoy that was underprepared that led to the U.S. Marines having to discard their plans of winning hearts and minds and instead led to the virtual levelling of this town in a revenge attack for the murder of the four contractors (Ricks, 2006, p. 313). Abu Ghraib also had contractors from CACI and Titan involved in the torture of prisoners (Finlan, 2005, p. 15). Most recently there was the September 16 2007 incident where members of Blackwater killed seventeen Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked shooting that has led to changes to the laws governing contractors working with the U.S. in Iraq .
In order to answer the question of why the use of PMFs in Iraq has been so problematic this dissertation will examine the underlying issues that have created an atmosphere where these kinds of incidents have not only been allowed to happen but have also gone unpunished. Issues such as the failure to adequately screen contractors, the inability to create an effective legal framework for PMFs to operate within, at both the domestic and international level, as well as a total lack of oversight, particularly in the monitoring of contracts, have all been significant causes of the problems that we are seeing today. The introduction of Order 17, by Paul Bremer as he was leaving Baghdad , that granted immunity from prosecution to all contractors, as well as the massive corruption in the allocation and fulfilment of contracts, were other reasons for the problems that developed from the use of PMFs. The issue of ‘cost-plus’ contracts that have made corruption not only easy but highly tempting, will also be discussed. This dissertation will also investigate the deeper issue of the legitimacy of using PMFs and examine the norms that developed around mercenaries which have carried over into the PMF area, despite the industry’s attempts to distance themselves from what they regard as a derogatory term.
While many of these issues are relevant across the contracting field, this dissertation will focus specifically on PMFs, rather than on the issue of contracting as a whole. PMFs are businesses that conduct:
“active military assistance that have a strategic impact on the political and security environments of the countries in which they operate.” (Isenberg, 2000, p.1).
The issues relating to private contracting in general have been dealt with by a number of books and documentaries whereas the issue of PMF failure in Iraq has not been the sole focus of any one work and has usually been just a chapter of a larger work. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill comes closest to this, however, it is not focused on the PMF industry as a whole. Researching the issues associated with PMFs is getting easier as the topic becomes more mainstream; however, PMFs are still wary of discussing their business with journalists or academics because they fear that no matter what they say they will be represented as modern day mercenaries.
This dissertation will be structured in the following way: it begins with this introduction and a literature review, after which there will be a short overview of the history of mercenaries, followed by a brief look at recent events that have led to the development of the PMFs that we know today. In this section two companies will be examined: Executive Outcomes who came to fame through their support for the governments of Angola and Sierra Leone in helping them quash rebel uprisings that threatened the state control of natural resources. The other company examined in this section is Sandline International who also operated in Sierra Leone . Sandline was also involved in a highly publicised failed attempt to assist the government of Papua New Guinea to recapture a copper mine. It resulted in the chief executive ending up in a PNG gaol for a number of days and the rest of his mercenaries deported from the country (Pelton, 2006, p. 268).
Following this there will be a discussion of the legitimacy and norms associated with PMFs including an examination of how the anti-mercenary norm has developed and what effect it is having on the PMF industry in Iraq today. The Clausewitzian model of trinity that is said to exist within a government, the military and the people is also discussed and evaluated to see if there is any linkage between this and the lack of legitimacy that PMFs face in Iraq. The next chapter will discuss the problems created by the lack of laws governing the actions of PMFs in Iraq ; where the U.S. government has allowed armed contractors to operate alongside their military with no accountability and no laws to prosecute them should they break the law. This has led to a feeling among the contractors that they are above the law or have a ‘licence to kill’. The result for the Coalition was that the Iraqis turned against the U.S. , soldier and contractor alike. The civilians on the ground do not differentiate and hence the actions of one affect the other.
The next section will examine the failure of the U.S. to implement any effective oversight of contracts awarded to PMFs. The lack of oversight combined with the non-competitive issuing of contracts make them wide open to abuse, and has created a highly corrupt environment in which the contractors are operating. Issues such as cost-plus contracts and the problems this has led to will also be examined. The corrupt environment is a danger for both the Iraqi civilian population as well as for the contractors themselves. The civilians are endangered because the contractors are following a very short-sighted mandate, usually the protection of a building or diplomatic staff and are only concerned with that one goal. For the contractor, success comes from ensuring that their short mission fulfils the terms of the contract; this can come at a cost to the long-term military vision because the contractors often are not concerned with issues such as winning hearts and mind as these considerations are rarely, if ever, stipulated in their contracts. The contractors themselves are also at danger from the money hungry attitude that has developed in Iraq . This is because the companies that they are working for could, and have, put lives at risk to save money. Examples of this are having convoys driving empty pallets around to add to costs and not providing contractors with the correct protective resources to do their job safely. A prime example of this is the Blackwater contractors killed in Fallujah.
After this general examination of PMFs in Iraq a case study of Blackwater will be presented. Blackwater has been chosen because it is the largest PMF in Iraq , as well as the most controversial. It has been involved in numerous incidents and has become the most notorious of all PMFs for its cavalier attitude which is evident in the manner by which it carries out its contracts in Iraq .
Finally, the last section will draw conclusions based on an analysis of the material examined throughout the dissertation. From the previous sections as accurate a picture as possible of the use of PMFs in Iraq will be drawn, and through analytical interpretation, the reasons why the use of PMFs in Iraq has been so problematic will be deduced.