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ABSTRACT
Since the 1990s, military support and security services in hostile environments have been increasingly traded on the market for force. Surprisingly, how exchange is organised on the market for force remains predominantly focused on the neoclassical model, which assumes anonymous exchange, and sellers compete through price and quality of product for customers. However, the model seems to be incomplete as it describes some empirical patterns, yet not others. Why are service backgrounds clustered together and why do specific nationalities dominate the market in the Iraq and Afghanistan war? Why are they not distributed evenly as price and quality competition would suggest? The argument here is that social factors need to be taken in to account, i.e. personal relationships. The logic being that sellers and customers trade through existing relationships, and familiarity is the dealmaker, rather than price. The article takes on the challenge to develop a sociological conceptualisation of the market able to integrate both logics. Finally, the approach is put to the test on the labour market for Western security operators. The results demonstrate that personal relationships play a significant role to explain exchange on the market for force, yet co-existence with the neoclassical logic.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Ulrich Petersohn is an Associate Professor at the University of Liverpool. He has published widely on norm change, private military and security companies and the market for force.
Notes
1 These journalistic studies do not conceptualise how networks work on the market, yet they are helpful in identifying their presence. A Boston Globe analysis revealed, over in the period “from 2004 to 2008, 80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives” – which includes large consultancy, logistics and maintenance firms (Bender Citation2010). According to a Government Accountability Office study, out of 52 companies (including procurement and military service industry), the 7 firms who hired the largest number of former DoD personnel (1581 out of 2435) received 43% of the total DoD contracts in 2005 (Government Accountability Office Citation2008, 10).
2 See, for example, http://security-contracting-jobs-afghanistan.com.
4 “So you want to be a security contractor?” Drifter Blog, (12 June 2013), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma7M9S9OClk.
5 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, March 2013.
6 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, February 2008.
7 http://blog.dangerzonejobs.com/overseas-contracting-outlook/2011-state-of-overseas-contracting-survey-results/ (7 May 2013).
8 Size of UK army: 99,800; German army: 62,000; French army: 119,000; Italian army: 103,000; Swiss army: 106,900; Turkish army: 402,000; Australian army: 56,200. All data are taken from: IISS (Citation2014) The Military Balance, 114:1.
9 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, June 2012.
10 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, June 2012.
11 “So you want to be a security contractor?” Drifter Blog, (12 June 2013), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma7M9S9OClk.
12 It is not impossible to build close networks on the market. James Yeager explains that if bonds were not built through shared military service, training “builds a bond and let’s [sic] them see how you perform” (Yeager Citation2008). Once on deployment, market-based networks can be strengthened and extended. James Yeager suggested the downtime on deployments should be used to get to know the teammates. As the operators’ lives depend on them, “[i]t doesn’t hurt to get to know them” (Yeager Citation2008).
13 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, March 2013.
14 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, June 2008.
15 E-mail exchange with a German operator, March 2011.
16 E-mail exchange with a German operator, December 2012.
17 http://getoffthex.com/groupee/?s=817104881&cdra=Y, 28 January 2008 (26 March 2013).
18 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, August 2012.
19 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, August 2010.
20 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, February 2008.
21 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, August 2012.
22 E-mail exchange with a US security contractor, August 2012.
23 http://www.dangerzonejobs.com/artman/publish/article_854.shtml (June 2013).
24 Assuming three service areas: security, consultancy and maintenance, and on each contracting and personnel recruitment takes place, i.e. there are six areas. Current research shows the importance of networks in all contracting segments and this article demonstrates the importance in one segment of the labour market for force.