MERCENARIES, MURDER, MONEY:

THE NEW REALITIES OF GLOBAL DIPLOMATIC WORK
By Jake Strickler

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Cheney, Bush One, Gulf War One

cheney, bush 2, back to the gulf

Untitled Slide

Why?

• Barrier to governmental, public oversight
• Secrecy in war maneuvers
• The creation of a "shadow army" to engage in covert operations

enter the shadow warriors

Blackwater's Operations

• Founded 1997 by ex-Marine Erik Prince
• Contract staff consists of ex-military and other special operators
• Consider themselves as "FedEx" to Armed Services' "USPS"

Relief with teeth

• Straddle a fine line
• "Mercenaries," by definition, kill and participate in military actions for money
• "Security Contractors" are guards-for-hire
• Blackwater has received enormous criticism for playing both roles when hired only as the latter

- In Iraq, they wer expected to play an exclusively defensive role for high-level diplomats such as interim Governor Paul Bremer

However...

• They operate with a wide latitude that blurs the line between defensive behavior and offensive.
• Following are some incidents which have drawn widespread criticism and Congressional hearings
• "Fire only when fired upon" had a tendency to turn into "fire whenever and at whomever you wish"

Baghdad bloody sunday

A CONGRESSIONAL HEARING WAS HELD ABOUT THIS EVENT

Untitled Slide

Nobody was punished for what was, in actuality, a war crime. A court battle concluding late last year found four employees of Blackwater guilty of murder.

Implications for diplomatic work

Moral dilemmas, blurry hierarchies

• Private contractors are now the first and last line of defense for many Foreign Service Officers
• FSOs are not permitted to carry guns
• Decreased military presence in places like Libya and Iraq have only increased reliance on private contractors

Conflicts of interest

• During the Bloody Sunday Hearings, Representative Stephen Lynch expressed a major concern

Problems with Oversight and Authorization

Conclusion

• Privitazation of the public sector has resulted in increased complexity in diplomatic work
• As this system is now largely ingrained, future diplomats will have to work out new ways to negotiate the demands created by the situation

closing Note

• Milton Friedman, the father of Privatization, said that the one thing that could never be subjected to the process was the military.
• Perhaps we should have listened to him.