David Isenberg’s Speaker Notes
Feb 16, 2009 David Isenberg
The following are David Isenberg’s speakers notes from a presentation he gave to some of his colleagues at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo.
It covers a lot of the highlights of his book Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq but it also gives some excellent insight to some other aspects of the wider PSC market.
Thanks David sharing this with the TCO community.
Jake
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Let’s start with why I wrote this book. My rationale was simple. I wrote it to fill a void. It is a sad fact that much of the debate over private military and security contractors is, to borrow from Shakespeare, a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing. The tale is made worse by the fact that much of those doing the telling have highly partisan axes to grind.
I have been following the industry since the early 1990s, long before most contemporary writers even realized there was a PMC sector. As time passed, it became clear that an interesting, indeed, fairly important subject-the role and impact of outsourcing traditional military and other national security functions-was degenerating into a politicized debate.
This book is simply a modest attempt to bring some facts into view and let the chips fall wher
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What’s in a name? Everything from A to Xe.
Feb 16, 2009 Commentary, Jake's Posts
By Jake Allen
As you will have certainly heard by now Blackwater Worldwide announced last week they are changing the name of their corporate holding company to Xe, pronounced ‘Zee’. It seems that even Blackwater has recognized President Obama’s call for change that can be believed in.
I fully support this decision and it is something I have been calling for, for a long time. Simply because as Xe spokesperson Anne Tyrell confirmed the events associated with the company’s operations in Iraq were fast becoming synonymous with everything the company was doing and that simply is not an accurate portrayal of the entire organization.
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