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Military Contractors in a Post-heroic Society: Organizational Adaptation and Military Autonomy

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Military Heroism in a Post-Heroic Era

Part of the book series: The Military and Society ((MS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the reasons behind the widespread utilization of military contractors. To address this question, the paper develops the contentious of previous scholarly work to argue that the extended use of military contractors is an adaptive measure undertaken by key decision-makers such as politicians and senior bureaucrats, and that it is centered on assuring continued support for themselves and higher-ranking commanders, thus in turn assuring the continued legitimacy and institutional autonomy of the armed forces. In other words, to guarantee continued political, financial, and social support for themselves, politicians and the armed forces use military contractors to help innovate and adjust to changing global and national circumstances and the challenges of emerging forms of warfare to maintain their institutional autonomy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use the term of industrial democracies rather than the West to include such countries as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan (and arguably Singapore).

  2. 2.

    Ms Whitney Grespin as worked for the US Department of Defence as a military contractor for over 5 years. She has helped to run contracts in Somalia and Afghanistan. See <https://whitneygrespin.pressfolios.com> (accessed 19th May 2020).

  3. 3.

    See the Watson Institute for the number of US military/contractor deaths in civil wars since 2001 <https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2019/Direct%20War%20Deaths%20COW%20Estimate%20November%2013%202019%20FINAL.pdf> (17th February 2020)

  4. 4.

    Operation Herrick is the name that was given to all UK operation conducted under the auspices of NATO in Afghanistan between 2002 and the end of the combat operations in 2014.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Defence Studies Department, School of Security Studies, King’s College London, London, UK

    Christopher Kinsey

  2. Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Mevo Yahalom 12A, 9072011, Mevaseret Zion, Israel

    Eyal Ben-Ari

Authors
  1. Christopher Kinsey
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  2. Eyal Ben-Ari
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Correspondence to Christopher Kinsey .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Uzi Ben-Shalom

  2. Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands

    René Moelker

  3. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Nehemia Stern

  4. Mevasseret Zion, Israel

    Eyal Ben-Ari

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Kinsey, C., Ben-Ari, E. (2024). Military Contractors in a Post-heroic Society: Organizational Adaptation and Military Autonomy. In: Ben-Shalom, U., Moelker, R., Stern, N., Ben-Ari, E. (eds) Military Heroism in a Post-Heroic Era. The Military and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51556-9_15

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