On January 30 I wrote a post regarding sexual violence by private contractors. Though the most flagrant instances have occurred in the past, it is still a problem.

Although I was not singling out any company in particular I did mention DynCorp because it served as the inspiration...

The latest Quarterly and Semiannual Report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) was released January 30, 2012. What follows are relevant excerpts of some of the more noteworthy contractor related activities.

On December 21, a U.S. contractor was sentenced to 3 months confinement followed by...

In one of those rare, "perfect storm" of coincidences, three events converge to provide the topic for this column. First, the latest issue of the in-house magazine, the arriviste named "Journal of International Peace Operations," published by ISOA, a PMSC trade group, is devoted to the topic of...

Sometimes, when listening to the arguments of private military and security contractors about how the actions of their industry helps make the world a more stable, and ultimately peaceful world, I almost think that Immanuel Kant, the 18th century German philosopher, has been reincarnated.

In his 1795 essay...

Some things just seem to go together: day and night, bread and butter, Romeo and Juliet, Abbott and Costello, Crosby and Hope, Batman and Robin, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Cheech and Chong, Sonny and Cher, Beavis and Butthead and sharks and suckerfish (remora) for example. In...

Those who follow the private security contractor industry, even if only cursorily, are doubtlessly aware that it is the cause of much controversy. To put it politely, a lot of smack gets said about PSCs. If you believe that PSC are mostly just decent men doing necessary work in hazardous...

From an oversight perspective, the situation in Iraq today where the bulk of private military and security contractors are now working for the State Department, and not the U.S. military, is certainly interesting, and more than a little ironic.

I mean after all, how diligent can the client, the U.S....

I've previously written about the longstanding debate over whether the United Nations should be using private military and security contractors (PMSC). But upon reflection I should have phrased it differently. It is not a question of if the UN should be using them; instead it is a question...

Typically, discussion of private military and security contracting focuses on what people actually do when they are fulfilling their contracts. But just as important is the process by which such contracts were approved in the first place.

One of the oldest fears about modern Private Military Security Companies (PMSC) is...

Although it was only about five years ago, it seems like almost yesterday that people concerned over the control and accountability of private military and security contractors operating in conflict zones were celebrating a change to U.S. law that was supposed to ensure that contractors operating in combat zones were...

Anyone who has ever used a contractor for anything, i.e., fixing your chimney, installing electrical circuitry, repairing a furnace, let alone protecting a supply convoy or your average American diplomat in a war zone, knows they all have one thing in common, aside from actually doing the job. And that...

The famous American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "There are no second acts in American lives." He was, of course, wrong.

America is the land of second chances and second acts, from Pilgrims fleeing religious oppression in England to set up Plymouth colony in Massachusetts and brunettes going...

For the latest on the effectiveness of oversight on private military and security contractors (PMSC) people should take a moment to peruse the hearing of the National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. On December 7 it held a hearing titled...

For those who follow private military contracting issues, it sometimes seems that all the focus is on the United States. That is understandable given the sheer number and value of contracts performed by the private sector in the United States but it is hardly the only country doing this.

For an industry which, ignoring historical antecedents as the British East India company, is only a couple of decades old, the private military and security contracting industry has made a very big impression in popular culture.

Just about every film and tv show in need of a new type of...

It is time for an update on showing, or is that showering, the PMSC industry the money; something I last wrote about in May. On November 23 the ace analysts over at the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies published a new report,...

For many years now supporters of private military and security contracting firms (PMSC) have argued that they can play a useful role in United Nations peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations.

Certainly, the possibility that PMSC can bolster U.N. peace operations has an intuitive appeal. After all the problems with U.N....

I hope that among those who read these posts is someone from the publishing industry, because I know where your next book should be coming from.

Allow me to introduce you to Commander Marcus Mohlin of the Swedish National Defence College who is doing his PhD work at...

I ended a previous post by noting how important it is for the private military and security contracting industry to pay more attention to its history. As the saying goes, you learn from your mistakes. But you can't learn if you don't bother to remember your mistakes,...

Normally, I'm not one to go around saying "I told you so," but (you knew a "but" was coming) I can't help but point you to Document 172 (Sentencing Memo) of Case 5:09-cr-00154-VEH -PWG, United States of America v. Eddie Presley, and Eurica Pressley, defendants filed on November...