The Corporate War Dead: New Perspectives on the Demographics of American and British Contractors

Abstract

From an obscure sector synonymous with mercenaryism, the private military and security industry has grown to become a significant complementing instrument in military operations. This rise has brought with it a considerable attention. Researchers have examined the role of private military and security companies in international relations as well as the history of these companies, and, above all, the legal implications of their use in the place of military organizations. As research progresses, a significant gap has become clear. Only a handful of studies have addressed the complex of issues associated with contractors’ demographics and lived experience. This article sheds some light over this lacuna, examining contractors’ demographics using descriptive statistics from an original data set of American and British contractors who died in Iraq between the years 2003 and 2016. The article augments our understanding of an important population of post-Fordist-contracted workforce, those peripheral workers supplementing military activity in high-risk occupations with uncertain long-term outcomes.

Contractors in Iraq: Exploited Class or Exclusive Club?

“…Studies of American contractors' motivations found that they are comparable to those of military professionals, demonstrating altruism and professionalism characteristics (Franke & von Boemcken, 2011). These complement other findings that indicate a broad representation of veterans among contractors (Butler et al, 2019;Dunigan, 2011;Swed et al, 2018) and offer some support for the point of view that these employees are an expert sector. Nonetheless, about 70% of the respondents indicated that earning more money than at a previous job is important or very important as a motivation for accepting their current positions (Franke & von Boemcken, 2011).…”

“…Most of all, secrecy is one of this industry's currencies, as companies are commissioned to perform national security tasks and functions. We use the Swed et al (2018) data set on the demographics of the American and British contractors who died in Iraq between 2003 and 2016; in this study, however, we have removed the British contractor data in order to focus solely on what we know about the American contractors. The data were collected from open sources, mainly from obituaries and media announcements, and include 184 American contractors.…”

“…In this article, we examine the demographic characteristics and professional qualifications of PMSCs from a data set of American security contractors who died in Iraq (Swed et al, 2018). While professionalism and exploitation are not mutually exclusive, nonetheless, they both constitute distinct and opposing aspects of the contemporary neoliberal labor market.…”

“…PMSCs are the current military iteration of the neoliberal value of costeffective management and employment (Levy, 2010;Ortiz, 2010). This costeffective approach dictates the outsourcing of periphery and core military functions (Levy, 2010;Swed et al, 2018) according to distinct performance measurements borrowed from the business world (Krahmann, 2017;Ortiz, 2010). It is a governing value that creates a post-Fordist military workforce (King, 2006), a workforce characterized by flexible specializations and flexible work conditions.…”

Dynamic Intersection of Military and Society

“…Research on use of private security contractors is challenging because private companies can legally shield their business operations from public scrutiny. Swed et al (2018) creatively took on this challenge by using publicly available records of contractor war dead as a proxy for contractor labor.…”