Book : The Modern Mercenary Private Armies And What They...

-Titulo Original : The Modern Mercenary Private Armies And What They Mean For World Order

-Fabricante :

Oxford University Press

-Descripcion Original:

It was 2004, and Sean McFate had a mission in Burundi: to keep the president alive and prevent the country from spiraling into genocide, without anyone knowing that the United States was involved. The United States was, of course, involved, but only through McFates employer, the militarycontractor DynCorp International. Throughout the world, similar scenarios are playing out daily. The United States can no longer go to war without contractors. Yet we dont know much about the industrys structure, its operations, or where its heading. Typically led by ex-military men, contractorfirms are by their very nature secretive. Even the U.S. government-the entity that actually pays them-knows relatively little.In The Modern Mercenary, Sean McFate lays bare this opaque world, explaining the economic structure of the industry and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. A former U.S. Army paratrooper and private military contractor, McFate provides an unparalleled perspective into the nuts andbolts of the industry, as well as a sobering prognosis for the future of war. While at present, the U.S. government and U.S. firms dominate the market, private military companies are emerging from other countries, and warlords and militias have restyled themselves as private security companies inplaces like Afghanistan and Somalia. To understand how the proliferation of private forces may influence international relations, McFate looks back to the European Middle Ages, when mercenaries were common and contract warfare the norm. He concludes that international relations in the twenty-firstcentury may have more in common with the twelfth century than the twentieth. This back to the future situation, which he calls neomedievalism, is not necessarily a negative condition, but it will produce a global system that contains rather than solves problems. The Modern Mercenary is the first work that combines a broad-ranging theory of the phenomenon with an insiders understanding of what the world of the private military industry is actually like. Review Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand a new component of modern warfare. The prevalence of privatized military forces raises serious political, economic, and moral questions. In The Modern Mercenary, Sean McFate applies his years of experience as a US army paratrooper and privatemilitary contractor to explore these questions through invaluable case studies and penetrating analysis. --General Stanley A. McChrystal, co-founder, McChrystal Group The Modern Mercenary is an adrenalin-fueled jaunt through todays battlefields, where we find not just the armies of the state, but security professionals whose considerable skills are available for hire. Writing from first-hand experience as a contractor in the field, Sean McFate helps usunderstand this complex world beyond the cartoon criticisms and film-inspired lore to see both the obvious dangers and the potential benefits provided by a shadowy industry. --Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret), Former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and Dean, The Fletcher School of Law andDiplomacy, Tufts University The Iraq War and Blackwater may seem like yesterdays headlines, but the private military industry is still going strong. In The Modern Mercenary, a book powered by deep research and filled with fascinating details, Sean McFate deftly explores both the historic parallels of todays trade inmilitary services for hire, and its likely future. --P.W. Singer, author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry and Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know McFate understands his subject from the inside. His excellent book shows convincingly the urgent need for our governments, and those who work for them, to grasp the consequences of their frequent use of private military companies before they lose control of them. --General Sir Rupert Smith KCB DSOOBE QGM Private Mil