US military logistics outsourcing and the everywhere of war

ABSTRACT

US military logistics outsourcing and the everywhere of war. Territory, Politics, Governance. Over the past two decades a network-centric ‘revolution in military affairs’ has profoundly reshaped the geographies of war. No less revolutionary has been the US military’s increasing reliance on private companies that employ a global army of civilian labourers to provide logistical support for operations around the world. This article provides an overview of the scale, scope, and emergence of this phenomenon, supplemented by an analysis of contracting activities at the peak of the war in Iraq in 2008. Following this, I detail three notable geopolitical and geo-economic entanglements that logistics contracting has engendered: (1) subcontracting and the exploitation of a largely South and Southeast Asian subcontracting workforce that is fuelled by inadequate military oversight and the down-sourcing of risk, (2) the geopolitics of contractor deaths, travel bans and troop withdrawals instituted by labour exporting countries, and (3) the duality of prosperity and precarity experienced by Bosnians who have worked for US military logistics contractors over the past two decades. Impacting politics, economic livelihoods, and social relations in countries around the world, these entanglements require a rethinking of the spatial dimensions of war.

摘要

美国军事后勤的外包与遍地之战. Territory, Politics, Governance. 过去二十年来，以网络为核心的“军事革命”，深刻地重塑了战争的地理。同样具革命性的变革是，美国军队逐渐仰赖私人公司，雇用平民劳工组成的全球军队来为其全世界操作提供后勤支援。本文综观此一现象的尺度、范畴与兴起，并以 2008 年伊拉克战争高峰期的外包活动之分析进行补充。随后，我将仔细描绘后勤外包所引起的三大显着的地缘政治及地缘经济交缠：（1）分包，以及对大多来自南亚与东南亚的承包劳动力进行剥削，而该现象是由不充分的军事监督与将风险向下规模化所催化，（2）劳动输出国所採取的承包者死亡、旅行禁令和撤军的地缘政治，以及（3）过去二十年来，为美军后勤外包工作的波斯尼亚人所经验的兴盛和不稳定的双重性。这些交缠影响了全球各国的政治、经济生活与社会关係，因而必须对战争的空间面向进行再思考。

RÉSUMÉ

La sous-traitance de la logistique militaire aux É-U et la guerre partout dans le monde. Territory, Politics, Governance. Au cours des deux dernières décennies une ‘révolution dans les affaires militaires’, axée sur des réseaux, a transformé de fond en comble la géographie de la guerre. Non moins révolutionnaire est la dépendance croissante des forces armées aux É-U vis-à-vis des entreprises privées qui emploient une armée mondialisée de travailleurs civils pour assurer le soutien logistique partout dans le monde. Ce présent article cherche à fournir une vue d’ensemble de l’échelle, de l’envergure et de l’origine de ce phénomène, complétée par une analyse des contrats de sous-traitance au plus fort de la guerre en Irak en 2008. Il s’ensuit une présentation détaillée de trois enchevêtrements géopolitiques et géoéconomiques remarquables engendrés par le soutien logistique: (1) la sous-traitance et l’exploitation d’une main-d’oeuvre sous-traitée, provenant dans une large mesure de l’Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est, qui sont alimentées par une surveillance militaire inadéquate et la sous-traitance (downsourcing) du risque, (2) la géopolitique du décès des sous-traitants, de l’interdiction de voyager, et du retrait des troupes instituées par les pays exportateurs de main-d’oeuvre, et (3) le binôme prospérité-précarité rencontré par les Bosniaques qui ont travaillé pour les entreprises logistiques militaires contractantes aux É-U au cours des deux dernières décennies. Ayant un impact sur la politique, la subsistance économique, et les relations sociales dans des pays partout dans le monde, ces enchevêtrements méritent quelque réflexion en vue des dimensions spatiales de la guerre.

RESUMEN

Subcontratación logística militar en los Estados Unidos y la ubicuidad de la guerra. Territory, Politics, Governance. En las dos últimas décadas una ‘revolución en asuntos militares’ centrada en la red ha reformado a fondo las geografías de la guerra. No menos revolucionaria ha sido la creciente dependencia militar estadounidense de empresas privadas que emplean a un ejército mundial de trabajadores civiles para prestar apoyo logístico a sus operaciones en todo el mundo. En este artículo se muestra un resumen de la escala, el alcance y la aparición de este fenómeno, complementado con un análisis de las actividades de contratación en el punto álgido de la guerra en Irak en 2008. Después, detallo tres escollos geopolíticos y geoeconómicos notables que han sido generados por la contratación logística: (1) la subcontratación y explotación de una fuerza laboral subcontratada en gran parte en países del sur y el sudeste asiático impulsadas por una supervisión militar inadecuada y la externalización del riesgo a personal menos competente; (2) la geopolítica de las muertes de personas contratadas, prohibiciones de viajes y retirada de tropas instituida por países exportadores de mano de obra; y (3) la dualidad de prosperidad y precariedad experimentada por bosnios que han trabajado para contratistas militares estadounidenses en las últimas dos décadas. Las complicaciones que afectan a la política, los medios de vida económicos y las relaciones sociales en países de todo el mundo nos obligan a reconsiderar las dimensiones espaciales de la guerra.

KEYWORDS:

• logistics
• contracting
• war
• military

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• logística
• guerra
• contratación
• militar

MOTS-CLÉS:

• logistique
• guerre
• sous-traitance
• militaire

关键词:

• 后勤
• 战争
• 承包
• 军事

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Joseph Blatt, Nerve Macaspac, Lucille Quiambao and Vernon Wessel for assistance with the research, and Matt Zebrowski for his work on the figures.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Barker's argument that this echoes earlier colonizer-colonized relations is fascinating, but interviews I have conducted with former and current workers indicate that relations between workers and soldiers are rather more complex than most existing accounts suggest as they vary considerably and are shaped by a number of factors including nationality, language, gender (a significant portion of workers are women), the types of work one does, the company one works for, the types of bases or camps one works at, and which of the armed services (Marines, Army, Navy or Air Force) are in charge of running a base. Though not the focus of this article, these are important dynamics that I explore in more depth in an ongoing book project on military logistics contracting.

2. The ratio of contractors to soldiers in the first Gulf War is skewed by the fact that a significant portion of logistics support was informally funded and provided by Saudi Arabia and various Saudi companies (Department of Army, 2010, p. 12).

3. A copy of the November 2008 report, as well as all of the other quarterly censuses, can be downloaded from: http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/PS/CENTCOM_reports.html. For a map of CENTCOM's AOR, see: http://www.centcom.mil/images/stories/unified-command_world-map.jpg.

4. Raw contracting census data from Iraq (see footnote 6 below), for example, indicates that the number of contractors in that country increased from nearly 137,000 in 3rd quarter 2007 to more than 149,000 in 2nd quarter 2008, and reached its peak at the end of 2008.

5. This graph is based upon data from all published quarterly censuses from 2008 to the end of 2015.

6. A copy of this data, which was obtained following a Freedom of Information Act request by journalists, is accessible at CENTCOM's FOIA reading room: https://www2.centcom.mil/sites/foia/rr/default.aspx.

7. Unfortunately it is not possible to compare this data on contracting personnel with the size of contracts. While there are government websites and databases (e.g. fbo.gov and usaspending.gov) providing information on military contracting and expenditures they are incomplete (Crampton et al., 2014, p. 209). Moreover, in the case of subcontracting, the legal principle of ‘privity of contract’ (see comments on this in the next section) means that agreements between prime contractors like KBR and their subcontractors are subject to drastically lower degrees of transparency and oversight (Tyler, 2012). Therefore this FOIA-released data provides, as far as I am aware, the most detailed information on subcontracting in contingency operations that exists to date.

8. Following the LOGCAP IV award Fluor and DynCorp took over KBR's operations in Afghanistan, but for continuity purposes the military decided that KBR should continue to provide logistical services in Iraq under the LOGCAP III contract until the withdrawal of troops in 2011.

9. Though called man camps it is important to note that a significant number of women also work on bases, both for prime contractors like KBR, Fluor and DynCorp and various subcontractors, especially those like PPI and Serka that recruit heavily from the Philippines. In cases where the contractor, base, and size of the female workforce is large enough separate camps or living quarters are often constructed for men and women.

10. The name of the employee has been redacted to protect his identity. Copy of contract on file with the author.

11. The transference of risk onto workers – especially from Asia, Africa and Latin America – can also be seen in the realm of private security contracting, not just logistics. For more on exploitative labour conditions for security contractors from the ‘Global South’ see (Gallaher, 2012; Chisholm, 2014; Eichler, 2014; Doring, 2014).

12. See: http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dlhwc/dbaallnation.htm. The Department of Labor is required by the Defense Base Act to track overseas contractor injuries and deaths for the purposes of providing compensation. It should be noted that the number of contractor casualties is likely higher than this as it is incumbent upon companies to report these figures and there is evidence of under-reporting by firms.

13. A similar phenomenon has occurred in towns in Kosovo and Macedonia near the massive Camp Bondsteel base established by the US military as part of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (Brown, 2010). Moreover, interviews with Bosnians and several Macedonians who worked for KBR in Kosovo and subsequently ended up in Afghanistan and Iraq suggest that the dynamics that I detail in this section apply equally to workers from Macedonia and Kosovo.

14. On the importance of investigating the various political and institutional contexts involved in the production of precarity, see Waite (2009, p. 421).

15. For a detailed empirical analysis of the support of operations across different logistics spaces, see Belanger and Arroyo (2012).

Additional information

Funding

Thanks to UCLA and the Hellman Foundation for financial support for this research.