Sex trafficking of women by peacekeepers: In the late 1990s, DynCorp Technical Services was subcontracted by the US State Department for military services in Bosnia, including recruiting American officers for the international UN police peacekeeping force there. Kathryn Bolkovac, a DynCorp employee, documented and reported that numerous UN peacekeepers were involved in sex trafficking of Eastern European women through Bosnia. The company's response was to demote and then fire Bolkavac. Subsequent investigations confirmed that sexual exploitation was fueled by well-paid military contractors but determined that, under the Dayton Peace Agreement, UN officials and contractors in the region enjoyed legal immunity from criminal investigations.
Militarized prostitution and trafficking in Iraq: In her study of military prostitution and trafficking during the Iraq war, Debra McNutt concludes that privatization of war " through heavy reliance on military contractors " has worsened the prostituting of women in war zones. According to McNutt, the "most thorough documentation of prostitution in Iraq is"the on-line "International Sex Guide (ISG). The ISG Iraq site was up and running a mere 2 days after the war was launched. Rife with misogynist and racist comments, the ISG site sported private contractors brainstorming about setting up brothels and charging high rates " since it was pimp's market -- that would keep the lower-paid military "riff-raff away.
5. Risk of militarizing governments and non-state networks. There are many risks to peace and security in the proliferation of PMCs, among them: abetting repressive and criminal clients; promoting and sustaining conflict; enabling covert warfare; and moving the military industrial complex even more centrally from the public sector to the private where the only checks and balances are shareholders. In the end, the use of private military may be more palatable to the U.S. public whose media reports the numbers of US military deployed, injured and killed yet rarely spotlights the number of corporate warriors employed in conflict, injured and killed.
The inevitable breakdown of social order within war has hazardous results for civilians -- most particularly the sex trafficking, rape and torture of women. Ceding armed conflict and ultimately national security to the private market of military contractors is a dire and disastrous trend.
A longer version of this article may be found on the TraprockCenter website.
Militarized prostitution and trafficking in Iraq: In her study of military prostitution and trafficking during the Iraq war, Debra McNutt concludes that privatization of war " through heavy reliance on military contractors " has worsened the prostituting of women in war zones. According to McNutt, the "most thorough documentation of prostitution in Iraq is"the on-line "International Sex Guide (ISG). The ISG Iraq site was up and running a mere 2 days after the war was launched. Rife with misogynist and racist comments, the ISG site sported private contractors brainstorming about setting up brothels and charging high rates " since it was pimp's market -- that would keep the lower-paid military "riff-raff away.
5. Risk of militarizing governments and non-state networks. There are many risks to peace and security in the proliferation of PMCs, among them: abetting repressive and criminal clients; promoting and sustaining conflict; enabling covert warfare; and moving the military industrial complex even more centrally from the public sector to the private where the only checks and balances are shareholders. In the end, the use of private military may be more palatable to the U.S. public whose media reports the numbers of US military deployed, injured and killed yet rarely spotlights the number of corporate warriors employed in conflict, injured and killed.
The inevitable breakdown of social order within war has hazardous results for civilians -- most particularly the sex trafficking, rape and torture of women. Ceding armed conflict and ultimately national security to the private market of military contractors is a dire and disastrous trend.
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