Privatization of Security in Iraq with Us Intervention: The Role and Effects of Contracted Personnel and Private Military and Security Companies

With the US intervention in Iraq in 2003, private military and security companies (PMSCs) became one of the most important partners of the United States and contractor personnel even became the second largest group within the coalition forces. After 2003, US administrations tried to externalize the increasing economic, humanitarian and political costs of the Iraq War through contractor personnel. While the contracted personnel fought in Iraq alongside the US forces before 2011, they replaced the US forces in the country after 2011. Although US administrations could offload some of the burden of their work through the PMSCs and their contracted personnel, human rights violations of contracted personnel undermined the reputation of the US in Iraq and the region. Contractor personnel also became a part of the increasing violence in Iraq as they themselves became targets and responded in turn and thus they became an important party of the increasing violence in the country. The privatization of security in Iraq through the US also transformed the concept of security and caused new security problems that are still being discussed. The legal status of and control over the PMSCs and their personnel, the exclusionary understanding about security and the marketization of security led to new security problems in Iraq, which was becoming an increasingly fragile country. The roles played by the PMSCs during the Iraq War also led to new theoretical and practical discussions in International Relations regarding the transformation of traditional security understanding and the monopoly on force.