War Plc

by Stephen Armstrong

No longer dogs of war running ragtag armies, the new breed of private soldiers operate their million-dollar contracts from executive boardrooms worldwide. Whether they're ex-special forces, CIA spooks or Foreign Legionnaires, you'll find them exchanging gunfire with insurgents in Baghdad, patrolling government buildings in Afghanistan, or spying on environmental protestors. The lucrative contracts of the 'War on Terror' have made their plans even more ambitious - to offer governments and corporations discrete and well-trained private armies. These corporate soldiers are part of the last great outsourcing - the privatisation of war. War plc examines how we got here, how these companies operate, and how close we are to letting them run our battlefields.

Genres: Nonfiction, War

257 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2009

Reviews

[John Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scary view of how corporate business thinking has taken over the business of being a soldier for hire. Stephen Armstrong has interviewed not only the soldiers who work for money, but also the executives who create the companies they work for. An interesting and informative read.

[Bob Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent study of the privatization of war.