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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: Outsourcing/Privatization
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
NO RAIN IN ST. JAMES’S
Sierra Leone is the same shell game with real chips,” Kinsey said. “Executive Outcomes, two hundred and twenty men, drives the RUF ‘to the point of defeat’ for under forty million dollars. His own footnote three concedes most sources say thirty-five or thirty-six, plus mining concessions that don’t fit cleanly under any dollar sign. Then he sets that against UNAMSIL — eleven thousand troops, ninety million, a peacekeeping and stabilization mandate with a different scale and a different decade entirely. He’s pricing the cost of winning a fight against the cost of keeping the house from burning down afterward. And the war didn’t end when EO left in 1997. It ran on through coups and Sandline and British intervention until a formal close in 2002 — which his own 2000 footnote all but concedes.” Continue reading
Posted in David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
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The Perils of Privatized Cyberwarfare
The Perils of Privatized Cyberwarfare Ronald J. Deibert Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 9:47 AM Share On: Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Share on BlueSky Share on Threads… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
THE LONG SHADOW OF THE SWORD-FOR-HIRE: Part Two: The Corporate Sovereign
“Who actually oversees a private military and security company once the ink on the contract is dry? The instinctive answer is the client government. Look at the chart. By the time the money and the mandate trickle down to the man kicking in a door in Mogadishu or guarding a pipeline in the Niger Delta, the principal-agent chain has stretched so long it snaps.” Continue reading
Posted in Control, David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Control, David Isenberg, Fiction, Outsourcing/Privatization
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Details of the proposed U.S. Senate authorization for contractor-led military cyber operations
What are the details of the proposed U.S. Senate authorization for contractor-led military cyber operations Generated by Perplexity AI Sep. 6, 2026 The proposal is a narrow, time-limited pilot in the… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Intelligence, Outsourcing/Privatization
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PMSC Daily Digest — 5 September 2026
PMSC Daily Digest — 5 September 2026 U.S. Eastern Time The strongest developments today are GardaWorld’s $382.3 million ICE transportation award, the UN’s findings on foreign military contractors in Sudan, and… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
PMSC Daily Digest: 4 September 2026 — U.S. Eastern Time
PMSC Daily Digest 4 September 2026 — U.S. Eastern Time Scope: armed/private security, defense support, private intelligence, cyber/OSINT, maritime security, logistics, detention/border contracting, surveillance/security technology, corporate ownership/compliance. I also checked the… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Companies, Contracts, Outsourcing/Privatization
Tagged Companies, Contracts, Outsourcing/Privatization
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A War-Built Industry With No Legal Name: Ukraine Moves to Regulate Its Private Military Boom
Russia-Ukraine War 16 JUNE 2026 A War-Built Industry With No Legal Name: Ukraine Moves to Regulate Its Private Military Boom Private firms already train drone pilots, clear minefields, and shoot Russian… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
Posted in Control, Outsourcing/Privatization, Ukraine
Tagged Control, Outsourcing/Privatization, Ukraine
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White House Unveils Program to Authorize Private-Sector Cyber Surveillance and Disruption Operations
White House Unveils Program to Authorize Private-Sector Cyber Surveillance and Disruption Operations Aaron R. Cooper, Philip Chertoff Tuesday, September 1, 2026, 10:02 AM Share On:Share on Facebook Share on X Share… You must be logged in to view this content. … Continue reading
VECTUS AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS
Vectus Air Defense Systems (“Vectus”) is a newly launched, privately held venture led by Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater USA, offering what it markets as “Air Defense as a Service” (ADaaS) — a subscription-style managed-service model applied to layered counter-air and counter-UAS protection for critical infrastructure and government sites. The company was publicly unveiled on Friday, August 21, 2026, through a coordinated announcement with Swarmer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWMR), an Austin, Texas-headquartered drone-autonomy software company in which Prince serves as Non-Executive Chairman. Swarmer took a disclosed 20% founding equity interest in Vectus as a strategic technology partner; Prince is reported, though not confirmed in a primary Vectus filing, to hold the remaining 80%. Continue reading