The Book That Started It All
Search
Categories
Archives
-
Recent Posts
-
Isenberg Video
- Here and There with Dave Marash, February 3, 2015
- Sep. 2, 2014 Al Jazeera English segment on Blackwater trial - Comment by David Isenberg
- Jan 2, 2010, Al Jazzeera (English), re Judge Urbina’s dismissal of charges against Blackwater contractors
- June 28, 2010. heard in “Controversy over CIA Blackwater contract,” The World
- August 17, 2010, on C-Span III, speaks on private military contracting
- Examining the role of the military contractor
- Has the Privatization of National Security Gone Too Far? The Future of Military Contracting, November 14, 2008, 9:30-11:00am, New America Foundation
- David Isenberg on PressTV - US contractor with poor ratings hired again
- Outsourcing War and Peace – Video
Recent Comments
- Carolyn Meinel on THE CONTRACT CENTURY
- Carolyn Meinel on THE CONTRACT CENTURY
- Carolyn Meinel on THE CORDILLERA PROTOCOL
- David Isenberg on Former student blasts military school for private defense contractors
- NO RAIN IN ST. JAMES'S - Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire on Doug Brooks
Tag Archives: Academic
Humanitarian aid, private security, and the international law obligations on the occupying power: a commentary on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Humanitarian aid, private security, and the international law obligations on the occupying power: a commentary on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Shannon Bosch Journal of Conflict and Security Law, krag019, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcsl/krag019 Published:… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Academic, Human Rights, Israel, Legal, Middle East, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Academic, Human Rights, Israel, Legal, Middle East, Outsourcing/Privatization
Leave a comment
From Corsairs to Private Military Contractors. Nonmilitary Maritime Actors and the Historical Continuities of Naval Warfare
From Corsairs to Private Military Contractors. Nonmilitary Maritime Actors and the Historical Continuities of Naval Warfare Memos| Date de publication 26/08/2026 Pieter ZHAO Image de couverture de la publication Download .pdf… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Academic, Maritime, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Academic, Maritime, Outsourcing/Privatization
Leave a comment
Russian Geo-Strategic and Economic Interests and Wagner Group’s Deployment in Libyan and Syrian Conflicts
Russian Geo-Strategic and Economic Interests and Wagner Group’s Deployment in Libyan and Syrian Conflicts Authors: Chibike David Obi; Frank-Collins Nnamdi Okafor; Onyebuchi Johnpaul Nduba Author Keywords: Russia, Wagner Group, Libyan conflicts,… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Academic, Libya, Middle East, Russia
Tagged Academic, Libya, Russia, Syria
Leave a comment
Deconstructing Plausible Deniability and Attributing Responsibility for the Conduct of Private Military Companies
The analysis focuses on two primary legal avenues: state attribution under the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Articles on State Responsibility (ARSIWA) and corporate criminal liability. It demonstrates that these legal frameworks are fraught with difficulties, including a deep jurisprudential divide between the ICJ and ICTY on attribution standards and significant procedural hurdles for corporate prosecution. The Wagner Group serves as a case study. This study concludes that the core problem is not a legal vacuum, but rather a “compliance vacuum,” where states deliberately avoid their obligations. Overcoming this will require a more robust application of the law. Continue reading
Strategic Blindness in the Sahel: Russian Influence and EU Security
This article examines the evolving security dynamics in the African Sahel and their implications for European Union (EU) security amid the expansion of Russian influence since 2021. It argues that the displacement of EU and Western actors by Russia has reshaped the regional security environment, generating a condition of strategic blindness for the EU, characterised by reduced situational awareness, limited intelligence access, and diminished capacity to shape developments on the ground. The study identifies key transnational threats affecting the EU, including terrorism and violent extremism, irregular migration, organised crime, illicit trafficking, and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). The findings suggest that Russia’s growing presence has not stabilised the Sahel but has increased the opacity and complexity of these threats. The article concludes with policy recommendations to enhance EU resilience and strategic engagement in the region. Continue reading
Soldiers of Misfortune: Mercenaries and Digital Propaganda in Africa
Soldiers of Misfortune: Mercenaries and Digital Propaganda in Africa You must be logged in to view this content. Click here to subscribe
Responding to unjust vis: confronting unjust proxy warfare
The existing literature on jus ad vim is dominated by discussion of the potentially justifiable uses of such measures. However, measures of vis are often abused and used unjustly, including Russia’s use of the Wagner Group as a proxy in Africa and its ‘grey zone’ operations in Ukraine. How should liberal actors respond to unjust vis? This article focuses on this question in relation to the unjust use of proxies. It considers the ethical principles that should govern responses to proxies, such as the Wagner Group, given their use to reduce domestic political costs and maintain plausible deniability globally. It considers two issues: whether sponsors or proxies should be the primary focus of responses, and whether ‘tit-for-tat’ proxy warfare is justifiable. The article then draws on this discussion to highlight general considerations for the ethics of responding to unjust vis. Continue reading
Professor Christopher Kinsey
Professor Christopher (Chris) Kinsey is one of the United Kingdom’s most established academic authorities on the privatisation of military force. He holds the title of Professor of International Security in the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London (KCL), based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC), Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, where he teaches military officers from partner nations and supervises doctoral research on the market for force. Continue reading
Priced but not Costed: The Empirical Status of Cost-Effectiveness Claims for Private Military and Security Companies
This paper asks what the evidence actually establishes. It proceeds from a deliberately narrow question—does contracting a given security function cost the buying government less than performing it in-house?—and then shows why that question cannot be answered without first specifying what “cost” means, against what counterfactual, over what horizon, and for which function. The central finding is not that PMSCs are expensive. It is that the proposition “PMSCs are cost-effective” has, for thirty years, functioned less as an empirical claim than as a premise: asserted by advocates, assumed by policymakers, and left untested by the institutions best placed to test it. Continue reading
THE MOUTAI ANALYSIS
Rain again. Beijing does its best noir impression maybe four nights a year, and the private room at the Nine Dragons had drawn one of them — low light, lacquered table, a lazy Susan turning like it had somewhere better to be. Six chairs, six scholars, one bottle of Moutai reserved for a toast nobody had earned yet.Song Bowen poured first, because Song Bowen always poured first. It was less hospitality than choreography — he liked to have something in his hand before he started dismantling an argument, the way other men like a cigarette.
loud, in the same room, what the Western literature gets wrong about us. And to enjoy ourselves while we do it.” Continue reading
Posted in Australia, China, David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Academic, China, David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
Leave a comment