Literature Review

Literature Review

Given the relatively new rise of PMFs into public consciousness there is a very limited pool of academic analysis to draw on at this stage. Thus the research for this dissertation has come from a diverse range of sources. Academic books have been consulted where possible and evaluated alongside newspaper reports of the time to ensure that all information is as accurate as possible. Journal articles have also been a useful source of information, particularly for events that have occurred between 2003 and mid 2007 on which there is a reasonable amount of analysis in the literature. Answering the question of why the use of PMFs in Iraq has been so problematic raises many important themes that will need to be examined. Firstly, questions of legitimacy and the use of private companies carrying out activities that were once solely the domain of the state needs explanation. Secondly, the issue of oversight needs to be examined because the lack of regulation, evaluation and measurement of performance are key reasons for many of the problems created by PMFs. This is because of a lack of due diligence and oversight have lead to two other major themes that will be examined: those of corruption and negative externalities. The way that a lack of oversight breeds corruption is fairly obvious. Without someone checking that what has been paid for is actually provided leaves the door wide open for abuse. The failure to implement regulation of PMFs is also a major reason contributing to the rise in negative externalities. This is because contractors have been given virtually free reign to carry out their objectives with little fear of repercussions if their actions harm the overall goals of the U.S. government and military. The consequence of the growth in negative externalities is that there are renewed calls for laws governing the use of contractors at both domestic and international levels. This will be an important theme in this dissertation. The other consequence is that the loss of legitimacy for the Coalition aides people such as Muqtada al Sadr who can use these incidents as propaganda for attacking the U.S. and demanding its withdrawal from Iraq. Another important theme to be evaluated is the dependency the U.S. now has on contractors and the fact that they would be unable to go to war without them. Finally, to balance the dissertation it is important to recognise the positive aspects that the use of PMFs bring to operations.

The theme of legitimacy is discussed in most of the academic literature on private militaries. One of the leaders in this field is Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who published the book Corporate Warriors in 2003 and then republished it with an updated chapter on Iraq in early 2008. Corporate Warriors is a broad look at the issue of contracting and touches on many of the themes raised in this dissertation. Singer discusses the issue of legitimacy, however because the book was written prior to the start of the Iraq war he has not related legitimacy directly to Iraq. It is also not covered in the updated section. While not directly discussing Iraq, some of Singer’s key points about legitimacy certainly apply. The first relates to the change in the U.S. government paradigm that now sees the outsourcing of military services as not only legitimate, but also necessary, to fill a “security gap” created by the end of the Cold War (Singer, 2008, p. 49). The shrinking of the U.S. military combined with the war in Afghanistan created a “security gap” that contractors were able to fill when the decision to go to war in Iraq was made.

Another aspect of legitimacy, touched on by Deborah Avant in her book The Market for Force (2005), is the way that the U.S. government uses private contractors to get around their own concerns or issues of legitimacy that would arise if U.S. soldiers were used. This allows corporate entities to carry out tasks that are too politically sensitive for the government to do (Avant, 2007, p. 4). Percy acknowledges that PMFs suffer from the accusation that they are merely just the newest reincarnation of mercenaries and thus the norms and legitimacy that are associated with mercenaries are also inflicted on PMFs. This is examined in some detail with relation to Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill in his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (2007a). Scahill points to incidents such as the Blackwater siege as evidence that PMFs are merely modern day mercenaries. At Najaf a lengthy battle ensued which involved Blackwater being resupplied by their own helicopters when the U.S. refused to provide assistance. This kind of operation is much more typical of a mercenary company such as Executive Outcomes, than a company of the type that current PMFs convey, which is of companies involved in purely defensive roles.

The issue of legality is a complex matter. Sarah Percy in her book Mercenaries (2007) discusses the issue of international law and its relation to mercenaries, which is relevant if you perceive PMFs as modern day mercenaries. Percy argues that the conflicting norms that have developed around mercenaries led to weak international laws governing the use of mercenaries (Percy, 2007, p. 169). Percy argues that this conflict of norms is caused by the desire of states to control mercenaries being incompatible with the ideas of Western states on freedom of movement and limited state responsibility. With regards to Iraq, and the legality of the use of contractors, there are numerous articles discussing Bremer’s introduction of the now infamous Order 17 which granted contractors immunity from Iraqi law and created an atmosphere similar to the Wild West where contractors could not be held accountable for their actions (Phinney, 2005, p.1). Singer discusses in Corporate Warriors the fact that despite numerous, very serious, incidents involving contractors, until very recently, no contractor has been charged, prosecuted or punished (Singer, 2007a, p. 251). Only recently have U.S. laws been changed to take account of contractors operating in a war zone. This is covered by Singer in a number of articles (Singer, 2007b, p.1) (Singer, 2007c, p. 1).  In April of this year these new laws were used to charge an interpreter who stabbed a fellow contractor, however, the outcome of this test of the military’s jurisdiction is still unknown.

The next theme to be examined is the issue of oversight. Oversight is about monitoring the whole private military industry, which includes the contractors, the firms providing the services and the contracts that are issued to the firms. Author James Kwok provides some insight into the lack of contractor oversight by bringing attention to the fact that one PMF in Iraq has hired a former British soldier who was thrown out of the Army and served time in gaol for assisting Irish terrorists (Kwok, 2006, p. 37). The issue of monitoring the actions of individual firms has been touched on by authors such as Kevin A. O’Brien who brings attention to the debate between the need for government regulation and the industry push for self-regulation (O’Brien, 2007, p. 57). However, incidents, such as the one caused by Blackwater on the 17^th September 2007, where they killed eight civilians and wounded several others, shine the spotlight on these companies and renew calls for their regulation. Scahill outlines the way that both Congress and the families of dead contractors have tried to bring some accountability to these companies. Law professor Laura A. Dickinson has examined the contract issue by surveying some of the publicly available contracts that PMFs have undertaken in Iraq and found that none of them contained provisions requiring contractors to respect and obey human rights, anti-corruption or transparency norms (Dickinson, 2005). The problem with contracts is also discussed by Mark Hemingway who identifies a major cause of this problem to be the lack of training and competence of the U.S. government’s own contract enforcement officers (Hemingway, 2006, p. 26). This is backed up by Singer who also raises the issue of contract officers and the way the government has actually reduced their staff at a time when their work load is expanding exponentially (Singer, 2007, p. 11).

The issue of corruption is also important to the dissertation because of the opportunity cost it represents. Money that is squandered through contractors billing for services that are not provided or are overcharged could have been used to help rebuild Iraq or provide better equipment for the soldiers. Matt Kelley who is a journalist at USA Today has covered the issue of corruption and the problems faced by the Pentagon in trying to prevent pork barrelling. He quotes the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who described the problem of corruption as the ‘second insurgency’ (Kelley, 2007a, p.1).  In investigative articles Kelley has also brought to attention matters such as the large number of contracts that auditors are starting to question and misappropriations from firms such as Kellogg Brown Root (KBR) (Kelley, 2007b, p.1 ; 2007c, p.1). Paul Verkuil in his article Outsourcing Sovereignty (2007) examines the problems caused by cost-plus contracts that “permit and encourage fraud and abuse” (Verkuil, 2007, p. 148). Another major issue is the sole-sourced contracts that the Pentagon is allowed to issue in times when the provision of services is needed at short notice and when a competitive bid process would take too long. Verkuil points out that this process leads to self-interested and arbitrary behaviour. His two conclusions are also important: firstly, while services can be outsourced, the oversight function itself should remain an inherently government function; and secondly, proper contract administration does not guarantee success, however, the failure to use competitive bidding, combined with the inability to enforce contracts guarantees deficient results (Verkuil, 2007, p. 150).

Negative externalities are a central theme to be examined when looking at why the use of PMFs in Iraq has been problematic. A negative externality occurs when the use of a PMF has unintended negative consequences. This is an ongoing problem and a major reason why the use of PMFs is now so problematic. The most obvious examples of which are two incidents concerning Blackwater: in March 2004 when a convoy was ambushed in Fallujah and the bodies of the four contractors were hung from a bridge and the September 2007 incident previously mentioned. These are covered in detail by Scahill as well as extensively in press articles from the time. The other major negative externality concerning contractors was their involvement in the Abu Ghraib scandal which involved contractors from the California Analysis Centre Inc (CACI) and Titan. This incident is covered by Singer (2007) and Avant (2007) as well as by substantial press coverage (Dao, 2004, p.1).

The issue of dependency on PMFs is missing from many publications on this subject. For example, David Isenberg in his article ‘Private Military Companies in Iraq’ published in From Mercenaries to Market (2007) edited by Chesterman and Lehnardt only makes passing mention of the fact  the U.S. went to war without adequate troop numbers and thus became reliant on PMFs. He fails to discuss any of the ramifications of the U.S. now being unable to wage war without them, or what would happen if they were no longer available, as nearly happened when Blackwater had its licence cancelled after the September shootings. Singer’s article Can’t Win With ‘Em, Can’t War Without ‘Em: Private Military Contractors and Counterinsurgency is one of the few articles dealing specifically with this issue of dependence. Singer likens the U.S. to a drug addict and the PMFs to the pushers. Singer, as with Isenberg and Lehnardt, also fails to discuss the problem of what do if a PMF suddenly becomes unable to provide the contracted service. Robert Young Pelton describes this situation in his book Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, where a Personal Security Detail (PSD) the U.S. Government hired from DynCorp to protect President Karzai disputed the terms of its contract and the entire team quit leaving DynCorp needing to find a replacement team at extremely short notice (Pelton, 2007, p. 75). Christopher Kinsley in Corporate Soldiers and International Security questions the reliability of contractors, and whether they can be depended on when the going gets tough, because they cannot be ordered into a war zone (Kinsley, 2006, p. 108). Given the recent trend towards hiring cheaper labour for PMFs this certainly must be an important concern and could be part of the reason that the use of PMFs in Iraq has become so problematic.

The academic literature that portrays a positive image of the use of PMFs is also very limited. Most of the books and articles that attempt to persuade the reader of the legitimate and positive role being played by PMFs have been written by people close to the industry. Examples of this literature include A Bloody Business by Colonel Gerald Schumacher (Ret) which describes incidents such as one involving a U.S. sergeant who attributed her training, provided by a PMF, as the reason she not only survived an insurgency’s ambush but was also able to cause significant harm to her attackers, and in so doing became the first female to be awarded the Silver Star (Schumacher, 2006, p. 166). This work is more of a description of how PMFs have had a positive impact. There is very little theoretical analysis of the positive impact PMFs might be having in Iraq or on international relations.

s well as military personnel. It does not require much imagination to see the ways in which the situation in Iraq might be in a better position today had contractors been properly monitored and regulated from that start and that incidents such as the murder of a guard to the Iraqi Vice-President would have been less likely to have happened had these measures been in place.