The Strategic Decision of Employing the Contractor in Humanitarian Intervention

Abstract

This chapter examines liberal state strategic decision-making when employing a contractor. Based on the relationship between society, state and contractor, it provides a theoretical understanding of how the nature of civil–contractor relations shapes political strategic and operational decision-making processes in the hypothetical case of the contractor becoming the liberal state’s cosmopolitan agent. At the core of the chapter lies the theorization of societal apathy to the contractor and its implications for the political will of governments to employ contractors.