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| At Private Military Ecology we explore unfolding trends and alternative futures for the use and understanding of Private Military and/or Security Companies and services. Late in 2013, we opened shop at WordPress --a nicer, cleaner and more elegant experience. At MilitaryEcology.com @ WordPress we discuss the wider 21st century security environment, including security contractor ecology areas, in addition to private military and security issues. However, please note that Private Military Ecology @ Blogger is actually our oldest blog space and we have posted many items there that you will not find elsewhere. |
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HIGHLIGHTS: |
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2007-2008 |
NEW BLOG @WORDPRESS: |
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OLD BLOG @BLOGGER: |
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Development and security but no free trade, October 15, 2008
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| The third debate between Barack Obama and John McCain converged to free trade. The elephant in the room was NAFTA. McCain might choose to downplay Canada and Mexico as important free-trade markets in favor of Colombia, but Obama’s policies undermine development and security aspirations south of the border altogether. |
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McCain, the military-industrial complex, and contractors, October 2, 2008
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| Senator McCain was twenty-five years old when Eisenhower issued his warning. Assimilating this knowledge during his formation years, he tends to see PMCs as a logical extension of an expanded defense sector and the military-industrial complex. |
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Obama, contractors, and private force, August 23, 2008
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| The challenge is to enact flexible modes of control that evolve alongside military renewal. Obama does not seem to offer a way forward by simply qualifying it as the erosion of “how accountability is structured”. |
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War Plc or let me 'borrow' your scholarship, July 30, 2008
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| At the outset, there are too many legal and theoretical connotations attached to ‘war’ to argue a clear association between it and PMCs. Have you realized that the Iraq conflict, which largely feeds your book, does not fulfil the requirements of a war? Probably not. |
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The French (PMCs) are coming, June 23, 2008
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| We all know the bitter meaning job cuts has in France, add to that the military establishment and words such as modernization and you have the ingredients for what in the periphery of the world would be enough to unleash a bloody coup d’état. |
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Britain’s phoney debate about security contractors and terrorism, May 28, 2008
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| Perhaps the unnatural preoccupation of the UK government and its client state with social engineering has got in the way of the serious debate about PMCs and contemporary terror. |
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Foreign Policy in Narrow Bandwidths and Sound Bites, April 1, 2008
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| The question of where Senator Obama, Senator Clinton, and Senator McCain stand now on the debate about Iraq and security contractors? |
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Clinton does Obama and Obama does Clinton, March 2, 2008
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| It that made Barack Obama look more centre ground than he ever intended and Hillary Clinton more to the left than her team ever planned. Where was Bill when Hillary decided to do an Obama number? |
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Ten to watch in 2008: actors, events, issues, and trends in the private military world, January 1, 2008
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| We have heard rumours about an olive branch concerning security contractors in Iraq to be handed by President Bush to critics of his administration in the second half of the year – or to soft the ground for the Republican nominee. (...) tune yourself in for an unforgettable swan song. |
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Finding a silver lining in an otherwise uncomfortable sense of detachment?, December 9, 2007
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| Because the current news traffic about the hostages is largely due to the release of a video demanding the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq by the kidnappers, the headline message sold by Number 10 was not carefully articulated, at best. |
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Do not forget the Missing Five, December 9, 2007
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| At noon on 29 May 2007, five British security guards from GardaWorld, a Canadian-owned security company, and a computer specialist working for BearingPoint, the US-based management consultancy firm, were kidnapped at gunpoint in Iraq. |
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Another summer in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, September 23, 2007
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| Do not be wrong, they deserve the same attention and respect as servicemen. Whereas we need to honour our soldiers, we need to at least acknowledge in the light they deserve our private military personnel |
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Transition assistance programs: incorporating the private military industry into the equation, July 31, 2007
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| (...) a good strategy is for the US to examine and amalgamate into TurboTAP SaBRE’s experience, and all the way round. The result could be a more robust service that is informative and useful to both returning veterans and the communities they are rejoining. |
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Scahill’s take on security contractors: ‘killer bees’ for the Google generation, July 8, 2007
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| This is not a defense of the firm in question, but an invitation to anyone who believes has learned about PMCs/PSCs solely from this book to broaden his/her horizons and examine the vast scholarship available on the topic before reaching ‘horrifying’ conclusions. |
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Supporting Britain’s Public and Private Security Personnel, June 10, 2007
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| (...) how long will it take for someone to propose the same for fully-fledged PSCs/PMCs such as Blackwater and Aegis. Indeed, this is the realm of speculations about alternative and surreal futures. However, are not we converging into that realm rapidly? |
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The UN is in need of a Private Military Company footprint, May 29, 2007
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| That way, UNPK can guarantee the unity of command, the promotion of integration efforts, and the enhancement of operational capacities it endeavours in its reform plans. Yet this highly-trained composite of PMC personnel can act as a much needed force and technological enhancer when amalgamated with blue helmets properly. |
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Climate change and terrorism, April 18, 2007
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| The basic premise that adverse conditions, be them caused by any factor, in this case climate change, contributes to terrorism is both overarching and too basic to lead to productive strategies. |
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The Greening of the arms industry?, 2 April 2007
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| (...) how long will it take for someone to propose the same for fully-fledged PSCs/PMCs such as Blackwater and Aegis. Indeed, this is the realm of speculations about alternative and surreal futures. However, are not we converging into that realm rapidly? |
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Security Contractors 101 has moved, 1 April 2007
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| Security Contractors 101 was an interactive feature introducing Private Military.org’s resources to a young audience. Adopting a very colloquial tone, the aim was simply to expose them to the dedicated research published so far and encourage them to read more before jumping to fantastic conclusions at blog speed. |
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