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Volume XXII, No 3, Fall 2005 |
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WORLD
POLICY JOURNAL
Privatizing Foreign Policy
Michael A. Cohen and Maria Figueroa Küpçü*
In August 2000, a motley array of democ-racy activists, politicians,
and fringe nationalists trudged into a hotel in Budapest. The assembled
figures constituted the leading members of Serbia's political opposition
movementa fractured and increasingly desperate group. Only
weeks earlier, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, hoping to catch
his erstwhile opposition off guard, had announced snap presidential
elections. After watching his domestic opponents spend eight years
repeatedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Milosevic
was confident. But this time, Serbia's democratic leaders had a
secret weapona bespectacled, Harvard-educated political consultant
armed with a PowerPoint presentation.Doug E. Schoen, who had worked
for Bill Clinton and numerous foreign political leaders, had spent
several years polling the Serbian electorate. The results were always
the same: Milosevic was deeply unpopular, but so too were the individuals
gathered in Budapest. Their incessant infighting caused many to
wonder whether these nascent democrats were truly serious about
bringing political change, or simply wanted to further their own
narrow political agendas. Zoran Djindjic, the nominal favorite to
run against the Serbian strongman, was a highly flawed candidate.
He had fled Serbia during the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999, and
thus many Serbs viewed him as a coward. "I can't win, can I?"
he asked Schoen. "No," Schoen responded. 1After a pause,
Djindjic asked, "What about Kostunica?" referring to Vojislav
Kostunica, the leader of a minor opposition party and a former law
professor. Schoen's polls showed that of all Serbia's opposition
politicians, Kostunica was the best candidate combining strong
nationalist credibility with low "unfavorability" ratings.
With Schoen's urging, the Serbian opposition united behind Kostunica's
candidacy, and within months a key element of U.S. foreign policy
in the Balkans had been realized Slobodan Milosevic was out
of power and headed to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.Was
a political pollster single-handedly responsible for toppling Slobodan
Milosevic? Not exactly, but after eight years of sanctions, smart
bombs, and fervent, often fruitless, diplomacy, a new and unexpected
weapon for defeating him had been found namely a non-state
actor, working in concert with U.S officials but motivated as well
by market-driven impulses and personal altruism.This wasn't the
first time that non-state actors (or NSAs) had played a leading
role in the Balkan conflict. In 1995, private military contractorswith
the active support of the Clinton administrationtrained the
Croatian army for its military offensive against Serbian rebel-held
positions in Croatia and Bosnia, which helped push the region's
warring parties toward peace talks.
This is one small example of what may be the most important yet
misunderstood political and social developments of the postCold
War era: the growing prominence and influence of NSAs in global
affairs. Non-state institutions, corporations, and advocacy groups
are playing an increasingly prominent role in nearly every aspect
of foreign policy, from promoting democracy, providing humanitarian
relief, and fighting international terrorism to propelling economic
liberalization, curing disease, and even waging war. The international
land-scape abounds with examples:
After more than a decade of international sanctions, Libya
was finally forced to accept culpability in the 1988 bombing of
Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in part due to a civil
lawsuit initiated by the families of the victims and a group of
enterprising trial lawyers.
In 1997, a determined activistusing e-mail as her toolbrought
together an array of human rights advocates to lead a global campaign
to ban landmines.
Stretched thin by multiple conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq,
the U.S. military has increasingly relied on private military contractors.
As a result, more than 20,000 unregulated military contractors,
equivalent to a U.S. Army division, serve in Iraq alongside coalition
forces.
Contagious diseases that threaten millions are being attacked
as never before by philanthropists and corporations with both the
will and the pocketbooks to make a difference.
For more than three centuries, the nation- state has served as
the foundation of the global political orderhence the "international"
system. Although the nation-state remains dominant, no longer can
it necessarily be considered preeminent. With the fading of superpower
rivalry, the advent of economic and political globalization, the
diminished role of the state in economic affairs, the absence of
strong supranational authorities, and the spread of new communication
technologies, the role of the nation-state has dramatically eroded.
In 1997, Jessica Matthews, now president of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, in a seminal article in Foreign Affairs,
noted that the "end of the Cold War has brought about a novel
redistribution of power among states, markets, and civil society.
National governments are not simply losing autonomy in a globalizing
economy. They are sharing powers...with businesses, international
organizations, and a multitude of citizen groups known as non-governmental
organizations."2 The "power shift" that Matthews
and others discerned has since gained momentum.
Over the past decade, the way we view foreign policy has fundamentally
shifted. While the years from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to
the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the era of the nation-state,
the period since may be viewed in a vastly different light as the
era of the non-state actor. The challenge for policymakers is to
comprehend the full panoply of NSAs, how states can most effectively
engage them, and the partnerships that can be created in furtherance
of foreign policy goals.
A New Foreign Policy Market
The role of non-state actors in international affairs is not a recent
development. The United Fruit Company and the British East India
Company virtually guided foreign policy in Central America and the
subcontinent in their day. Organizations like the Red Cross and
antislavery groups influenced international affairs in the past,
as multinational corporations do today. In the waning years of the
Cold War, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) pressed successfully
to bring environmental issues and human rights concerns to the world's
attention. However, non-state actors largely operated within the
framework of a state-centric system. What is most striking about
NSAs today is that while some collaborate intimately with states,
others tend to operate by their own rules, and are often guided
by their own parochial interestsinterests that may run counter
to those of their home governments. Moreover, NSAs are demonstrating
a growing ability to project their power and influence across borders,
often without regard to formerly sacrosanct notions of state sovereignty.
NSAs cannot function without the regulatory framework that states
provide, but that does not mean that they are necessarily beholden
to their home governments. 3 If anything, there is increasing evidence
that states themselves are in fact becoming more dependent on a
whole host of non-state actors. Could the United States, for example,
fight its war in Iraq without private military contractors? Could
it promote democracy around the world without the involvement of
NGOs, political consultants, and emerging civil society movements?
Could economic liberalization have proceeded so quickly without
the leverage of international investment and the prominence of global
capital markets? Would efforts at AIDS prevention and education
be as effective without the involvement of philanthropists like
Bill Gates and private citizens like Bill Clinton? These codependent
relationships reflect the new political dynamic of the era of the
non-state actor. As NSAs continue to gain influence in global affairs,
managing the state/non-state actor relationship will become one
of the critical challenges facing policymakers.To better manage
that relationship it is essential to expand the definition of what
constitutes a non-state actor. No longer can NSAs simply be characterized
as traditional NGOs or civil society groups. A proper definition
must be as elastic as possible to incorporate the full array of
actors that are now able to make their voices heard, and their actions
felt, in global affairs. 4Nor is it always accurate to assume that
NSAs are motivated by altruism, or what might be considered public-sector
concerns. An altogether different impulse is increasingly guiding
many non-state actors: "foreign policy for profit." As
the state has retreatedand the opportunity for non-state actors
to flex their muscles has emergeda foreign policy "market"
has been created, one that individuals and organizations motivated
by the prospect of profit and influence have been happy to fill.As
state sovereignty erodes and the barriers to entry for new global
actors continue to fall, policymakers are struggling to adjust to
this new dynamic. For the most part, the Bush administration remains
obstinately focused on a state-centric global model, particularly
in its approach to fighting terrorism. As the French Islamic theorist
Gilles Kepel points out, the Bush administration could not be dissuaded
from waging war on Iraq as a means of countering terrorism because
it was "culturally incapable of grasping an actor that was
not, in the final analysis, a state."5 Yet with an administration
whose senior officials seem determined to "protect" American
sovereignty against the United Nations, international institutions,
and the amorphous notion of an international community, it seems
hardly surprising that Washington would unilaterally pursue a state
sponsor of international terrorism, no matter how marginal the link.
Among conservatives, there has been an abiding fear that the decline
of state sovereignty would be matched by the rise of supranational
institutions or a "world government," as some have ominously
warned. Instead, it may well be that the greatest challenge to state
power is not international law or world government but a decentralized,
diffuse, and more democratic global system in which even the most
powerful actors are discovering significant limitations on their
actions.
These limitations on state power are not being imposed from above.
Instead, they reflect the dominant themes of political openness,
economic integration, and technological change that define the postCold
War era. In fact, it is these constraints on state power, and the
subsequent opportunities provided to NSAs, that are most responsible
for the dawn of this new era.What Has Changed? Technological advancement
has become the one-size-fits-all explanation for myriad social,
economic, and political changes. But there is little doubt that
the development of communications technology has played a crucial
role in diminishing state power. To be sure, the transformative
impact of technology is not a new phenomenon. The roots of twentieth-century
totalitarian rule derived in part from the ability of leaders to
manipulate new forms of mass communication. Today, we are witnessing
the reverse.Information technology is slowly chipping away at the
power of states to shape and create public opinion. Today, more
than 100 million Chinese are surfing the Web, and China has more
than 4 million blogs. As the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof
argues, "The Chinese Communist Party survived a brutal civil
war with the Nationalists, battles with American forces in Korea
and massive pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square. But
now it may finally have met its matchthe Internet." 6
In fact, during the SARS epidemic, it was Chinese citizens, over
the objections of government officials, who used the Internet to
bring the issue to the fore.
More significantly, advances in technological penetration and the
decreasing costs of cross-border communication also provide non-state
actors with the ability to operate globally. Creating an overseas
presence can be as simple nowadays as plugging in a broadband Internet
connection or relocating a call center to a foreign locale.The possibilities
are not limited to for-profit institutions. Following the tsunami
in the Indian Ocean last December, the Internet became an invaluable
tool for raising money, helping families find missing relatives,
providing news and information, and even serving as an early-warning
tool. Online donations helped humanitarian agencies raise and distribute
money, so much so that within ten days of the calamity, online donations
almost matched the initial $350 million pledged by the U.S. government.7As
the tsunami disaster demonstrated, because non-state actors are
generally less hierarchal and bureaucratic than their state counterparts,
they are able to utilize new technologies far more efficiently.
These technological changes, on their own, would be dramatic, but
by combining technological advancements with new-found political
and economic openness they appear downright revolutionary.Over the
past decade or so, we have witnessed an era of unprecedented political
revolution. Much of the world is today living under elected regimes
formally committed to economic liberalization, the rule of law,
and respect for human rights. These positive developments have to
a large extent fundamentally weakened state power by empowering
non-state actors and providing them with the opportunity to operate
across borders with relative impunity.As seamlessly as individuals
and networks travel across national boundaries so too do ideas.
Earlier this year, the United State Supreme Court, in Roper v. Simmons,
cited "international opinion" as a rationale for declaring
an end to the death penalty for juveniles. Clearly, the flow in
cultural norms is no longer a one-way process.At the same time,
while states must balance the concerns of domestic constituencies
in addressing foreign policy challenges, NSAs are responsive to
their stakeholders, providing them with needed flexibility for action.
The Bush administration, in joining the fight against AIDS in Africa,
has earmarked a third of its proposed $15 billion pledge for abstinence
education and refuses to fund groups that support abortion, largely
to placate its conservative political base. NSAs may or may not
be bound by the same "political" constraints, but those
that are act out of choicenot obligation.While states tend
to respond to the current news cycle or latest cause célèbre,
NSAs can take proactive positions well ahead of their counterparts
in government. For example, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, U.S.
war planners already had on their desks plans for removing Iraq's
thousands of deadly landmines. The initiative did not come from
a Pentagon functionary but from a private firm in search of a lucrative
government contract. 8For generations, international economics was
a zero-sum game in which rival nations sought either control over
territory or the resources crucial to economic superiority. Yet,
as the British scholars John Stopford and Susan Strange point out,
states "now compete more for wealth as a means to powerbut
more for the power to maintain internal order and social cohesion
than for the power to conduct foreign conquest or to defend themselves
against attack." 9 For better or for worse, corporations are
increasingly seen as essential providers of capital, technology,
management skills, and even access to foreign markets in developing
countries. 10 In a sense, the world of global economic policy has
become akin to owning a professional sports franchise. The states
set the rules, and they may have some input into building and paying
the team, but they are not necessarily the ones on the field playing
the game.
Even the way we think about international economic policy is changing.
On college campuses, students of international relations are being
taught that a nation's economic well-being can be judged in part
by the measure of imports versus exports. But when one considers
that the value of goods produced overseas by American transnational
corporations is more than twice that of American exports, and that
sales by foreign- owned companies inside the United States were
nearly twice the value of imports, do classical trade measurements
really give us a true sense of economic might, or even of the global
economic landscape? 11The new scale is not simply macroeconomic.
On a day-to-day level, the notion of the "provisory" state
has been radically changed. With the privatization of once exclusively
governmental services in everything from transportation and financial
services to health care and social welfare, coupled with the gradual
erosion of respect for government, the state's preeminence has been
dramatically displaced. The concept of the state as the provider
of public goods is challenged both by a greater reliance on free
markets and by a lack of trust in government institutions. 12In
poor countries, the shift is even more profound. Nongovernmental
organizations, private charities, and even for-profit corporations
are increasingly providing education and health care, supplanting
governments too strapped or too inefficient to offer such basic
services on their own. In the richer nations, too, private enterprise
has become the conduit by which some citizens receive health care,
retirement benefits, and, in some cases, personal security.One might
assume that national security would be the one sphere in which the
state's power remains unchallenged. But with the diminishing threat
of interstate conflict, notions of national solidarity have been
severely weakened. While President Kennedy could call upon Americans
to "bear any burden" to prevail over the enemies of freedom,
today the Bush White House urges Americans to help fight the war
on terrorism by "going to the mall." As the Harvard political
scientist Joseph Nye puts it, "the absence of a warrior ethic
in modern democracies," limits the flexibility of nations not
only to wage war, but even to justify it. 13
Fundamentally, it has become more difficult to argue that issues
of war and peace are still the primary concerns of international
relations. As noted, the threat of interstate conflict has diminished,
and intrastate conflict has become the primary cause of death from
war. Moreover, since 1991, the number of armed conflicts has steadily
declined. From a high of 51 wars in 1991, armed conflicts in the
world have fallen by more than half. And although in the year 2000
alone 300,000 people were killed in wara grim tollthis
was surely a significant improvement over the twentieth century's
bloody legacy. 14Nobody could sensibly contend that national identity
is no longer relevantin fact, in an increasingly globalized
and fractured global environment, individuals may identify with
the state more closely than ever. But that sense of recognition
seems likely to become a symbolic relationship, with a diminished
willingness of citizens to sacrifice and die for their country.Finally,
international legal precedents have also propelled the rise of non-state
actors. In the mid-1970s, the Helsinki Accords provided a framework
for human rights monitoring and gave impetus to NGOs concerned with
human rights. Today, with a growing web of international agreements
on everything from global warming and landmines to biodiversity
and human rights, plus new global bodies like the International
Criminal Court and a panoply of U.N.-based transnational organizations,
virtual armies of NSAs have assembled to monitor, implement, and
advocate. The result is a new mode of international behavior that
is transnational in nature and constantly impinging on national
sovereignty.
Of itself, the confluence of these factors does not fully explain
the growing role of non-state actors. In fact, NSAs are not only
filling a vacuum left by the retreat of the state but are also responding
to a new set of challenges that seep across borders. It is that
capability, bolstered by technology, political openness, and international
law, that provides NSAs with an opportunity to influence global
behavior.
Consider the issue of child labor, which gained prominence on the
international agenda in the mid-1990s. NGOs and human rights advocates
identified the problem but went beyond a state-based regulatory
solution and directly targeted the source: manufacturers such as
Nike. The result was progress on an international problem that scarcely
involved traditional methods of statecraft.Similar approaches can
be seen in the international campaign to ban landmines, the debt
relief movement (spearheaded by U2's lead singer, Bono), and growing
calls for corporate social responsibility, as well as advocacy efforts
directed at creating international codes of conduct. Non-state actors
have employed sophisticated public relations tactics to build awareness
and put pressure on governments, global institutions, and for-profit
companies. More and more, it is NSAs that are setting the global
agenda and providing solutions to modern challenges such as terrorism,
the AIDS crisis, global warming, environmental degradation, and
corruption. In fact, it is hard to imagine a single bilateral relationship
that enjoys the same importance as these multinational issues.In
reality, even states as powerful as the United States lack the necessary
resources, bureaucratic interest, or even political motivation to
address the ever increasing range of crises on the global agenda.
As the French foreign policy analyst Dominique Moisi points out,
"There is a race between the growing power of America and the
growing complexity of the world. But it is a race that America cannot
win." 15
Widespread Influence In a real sense, the proliferation of non-state
actors is hardly surprising, particularly when one considers the
defining characteristics of the postCold War era: economic
globalization and international terrorism. Both have been fundamentally
influenced by the behavior of NSAs.
Before September 11, economic integration and trade liberalization
defined the international agenda, a process largely driven by private
actors. The World Trade Organization, the International Monetary
Fund, and the World Bank obviously played a role. The Clinton administration
also pressed other countries to open their markets, build transparent
regulatory regimes, and protect intellectual property. 16 However,
states like China, India, and the former members of the Warsaw Pact
undertook the often painful process of economic liberalization not
simply to please Washington or international financial institutions,
but to gain access to global capital markets, attract foreign direct
investment, and thereby achieve robust and sustainable economic
growth.
In this process, the efficacy of foreign aid has diminished. Twenty
years ago, government assistance was four times greater than that
of private capital flows. Today the numbers are reversed: private
investment is now six times greater than foreign aid, and charitable
giving to international development is three times greater than
the amount given by the U.S. government. 17Few would dispute that
competitive markets, the flow of cross-border capital, and investment
decisions by huge corporations are driving globalization. These
corporate entities have become the most important economic and social
actors on the world stage, rivaling and sometimes surpassing the
influence of states. More than 50 of the world's 100 largest economies
are publicly owned companies with workforces in the hundreds of
thousands and offices in every major region of the world. 18Mega-sized
businesses can be as consequential to the world economy as even
some medium-sized countries. To be sure, the influence of multinationals
is hardly a new development. The difference is that in the past
large conglomerates often operated in tandem with home governments,
while today's corporate behemoths are global actors in their own
right.According to Jeffrey Garten, former dean of the Yale School
of Management, "The most important and enduring relationships
between the United States and other countries are often based on
the trade and investment of American businesses. Today, U.S firms
have a significant presence in virtually every large country. They
advise foreign governments. They are transmission belts for American
culture and values. Indeed, U.S. businesses often surpass the influence
of American embassies on the societies in which they have become
rooted." 19
The influence of multinational firms can also be seen in the regulatory
framework of international economics. Debt-rating agencies maintain
enormous influence over fiscal policy, private arbitration services
are supplanting the role of the judiciary, and corporate lobbyists
have helped set new global rules on intellectual property rights.
20While these economic players exert a critical and generally positive
influence on international affairs, they are singular. On September
11, 2001, nineteen young men with an unwavering ideological fervor
changed the course of history. Al-Qaeda and its subsidiary organizations
are, tragically, the ultimate example of the ways in which non-state
actors are transforming the international landscape. Terrorism previously
was largely state-sponsored, or at the least maintained state-centric
aspirations. Today, al-Qaeda operates outside the state system,
and its "success" is due in large measure to its ability
to use the mechanisms of globalization cross-border travel,
advanced communications technology, and the international mediato
its advantage.
Al-Qaeda is not alone. The profits from global drug trafficking
dwarf the economies of many countries. According to one estimate,
the value of all the cocaine produced in Latin America in 2001 was
approximately $93 billionan amount greater than the gross
national income of three-quarters of the nations in the world. In
the United States alone, the illegal narcotics trade is estimated
to be a $60 billion industry. 21 With their vast profits and global
reach, the sophisticated criminal networks that control this narco-traffic
are having a profound effect on the ability of some states to govern
themselves. President Bush recently classified 22 countries as major
drug-transit or major illicit drug-producing countries. 22
These examples illustrate how NSAs are creating new international
realities. But the era of the non-state actor is defined as much
by what is happening at the bottom of the global food chain as what
is happening at the top. The diffusion and limitations of state
power are creating new opportunities for private actors -- often
in ways that are not readily apparent. Evidence of NSA influence
may be seen in the complex and multifarious relationships that develop
between states and non-state actors. Scholars have often focused
on understanding the particular "typology" of NSAsdefining
them on the basis of their public, private, or civil society roots.
But, policymakers must further their understanding of the dynamics
of state/NSA relationships if they are to manage them successfully.
State/NSA interaction can be broadly defined in five discrete categories:
direct engagement between states and non-state actors; selective
engagement, or episodic burden sharing; NSAs circumventing states;
conflictual relations; and agenda setting. 23
Direct Engagement
In March 2004, Americans were shocked by images of charred and dismembered
bodies being dragged through the streets of the Iraqi city of Fallujah
and then hung in gruesome display. The scene brought back memories
of another tragedy that deeply affected Americans and the conduct
of U.S. foreign policy -- the killing of 19 Rangers in Somalia in
1993. But this time the corpses were not those of U.S. soldiers.
These men were employees of Blackwater USA, a private military contractor.
The U.S. war in Iraq has underscored one of the more profound examples
of state/NSA cooperation -- the use of private military companies
(PMCs), also known as private security companies. It is a relationship
with visible implications for the way the U.S. government plans
and manages global security operations.
Among the thousands of private contractors providing logistical
support in Iraq, at least 20,000 employees from 60 different PMCs
are under contract to the U.S. government to provide security services.
24 (Another 5070,000 unarmed civilians are in Iraq to provide
other services, from delivering mail to rebuilding essential infrastructure.)
Armed civilians, many of them former Special Forces, handle an estimated
30 percent of essential security services, guarding reconstruction
projects, escorting convoys through hostile areas, and defending
strategic locations and individuals, among other things. 25 Even
the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is protected by a private
contractor, the U.S. firm, DynCorp.
The use of PMCs has grown steadily since the early 1990s. During
the Gulf War, the ratio of soldiers to private security contractors
was 50 to 1; today, it is closer to 7 to 1. Private military companies
are not only supporting a shrinking U.S. force in Iraq; they are
also playing critical roles for both state and non-state actors
in stabilization, drug interdiction, and humanitarian operations
around the world.Mercenaries have long been a part of war, but as
one of the fastest-growing sectors in the defense industry, some
PMCs are shedding their "guns for hire" reputation for
a more respectable, corporate image. Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow
at the Brookings Institution, estimates that "the 1,000 or
so companies that define the industry... currently rake in $100
billion per year for active operations in over 50 countries around
the world, and the industry is expected to double in size to $200
billion by 2010." 26 Sensing the business potential, large
defense contractors have been buying up some of the oldest private
firmsMPRI, DynCorp, and Vinnell Corporation are now subsidiaries
of L3 Communications, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Northrup
Grumman, respectively. Private military companies are increasingly
part of larger conglomerates that offer a range of services from
combat support to postconflict reconstruction and provide governments
with a virtual "one-stop" war-fighting shop.
The privatization of military operations reflects a government-wide
emphasis on achieving greater cost-effectiveness and efficiency
in public institutions. Testifying before Congress earlier this
year, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asserted that contracting
civilians was "freeing up additional tens of thousands of military
personnel for military responsibilities[resulting in] an increased
usable military end strength without an increase in overall numbers."
27 At the same time, however, the government's reliance on PMCs
has grown faster than its ability to monitor them, particularly
since these firms largely operate in a gray zone beyond congressional
oversight, military codes of conduct, and even international humanitarian
lawcreating a host of legal, financial, and political concerns.
Still, it is exactly these "political" attributes that
make PMCs so attractive to policymakers. In an era of the all-volunteer
force, contracting can make it possible for policymakers to underplay
the costs of war. For example, Singer notes that PMCs in Iraq have
suffered more dead and injured than all non-U.S. coalition forces
combined. 28 Hiring contractors can also give decision-makers the
political breathing room to support military operations in response
to national security interests that enjoy little public support.
For example, in 1998, Nigerian peacekeepers were sent to reinforce
Sierra Leonean troops fighting Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
rebels. The U.S. contribution to ECOMOG, the West African peace-keeping
force, was combat support from a private firm, International Charter
Incorporated of Oregon. 29
The complexity surrounding the legal status of PMCs also points
to the difficulty of defining appropriate state/NSA cooperation.
As armed civilians working abroad for private firms, contractors
may be governed by their company's code of conduct, but not by the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. The resulting difficulties were
painfully exposed in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
U.S. Army investigations determined that a third of the incidents
there -- ranging from abuse to rape and assault -- involved private
contractors (including translators and interrogators). 30 Thus far,
none have been disciplined. Disturbingly, if a private contractor
were to kill an Iraqi civilian, the victim's family would have practically
no legal recourse. In considering the dilemma of PMCs that may violate
international humanitarian law while employed on a mission, an executive
from Médecins Sans Frontières was prompted to ask,
"Who can be held to account? The shareholders?" 31
In addition to thorny political and legal issues, the increasing
reliance on PMCs may also be eroding the capacity of the very states
that employ them. If not properly managed, contracting can hamstring
a government's ability to innovate and also retain skilled individuals.
An experienced Special Forces operative can earn up to $250,000
annually with a PMC -- two to ten times more than in the military--
plus benefits, vacation, and the choice to opt out of risky operations.
The exodus of military personnel to the private sector has significant
long-term implications for a military that has spent years and taxpayers'
money preparing highly trained soldiers. To take one example, there
are more former members of Britain's elite Special Air Service (SAS)
serving with PMCs in Iraq than there are members of the SAS in the
British force there. 32Mixing public and private warriors in security
operations is also affecting the morale of enlisted troops and is
leading to practical dilemmas in the field. In Fallujah, the political
ramifications of the violent deaths of Blackwater employees forced
military planners to engage insurgents sooner than they would have
preferred. The subsequent combat operations resulted in significant
U.S. casualties and further strained relations between the military
ranks and contractors. 33Relying on PMCs may be militarily and politically
expedient, but it challenges policymakers to consider the appropriate
balance between public and private authority in foreign policy.
In the scheme of state/ NSA relations, privatizing military operations
requires that governments become vigilant clients while at the same
time retaining their role as regulators of the public interest.
Selective Engagement
While PMCs have become a virtual subsidiary of the U.S. military,
in most cases the relationship between non-state actors and states
is more improvised. A form of tentative, selective engagement in
the so-called soft area of democratization provides a model for
such cooperation. Since the end of the Cold War, democracy promotion
has gained broad acceptance as a foreign policy goal. Larry Diamond,
a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, notes that democracy
assistance is a relatively new phenomenon that typically includes
"helping to develop the formal political institutions of democracy;
assisting the preparation, conduct, and monitoring of elections;
and strengthening independent organizations in civil society."
34 For decades, the United States has funded its own official programs
and organizations (both covert and overt) and has contributed to
a dense network of private NGOs whose philanthropic aim is to foster
democratic practices at the grass roots. The explosion of young
democracies emerging from the Cold War has only intensified these
efforts.In recent years, however, budget constraints and a disproportionate
preoccupation with democracy promotion in Iraq and Afghanistan have
constrained U.S. policy-makers' ability to match their rhetoric
with adequate resources. At the same time, the growing influence
of media and the emphasis on "image-based" elections has
changed the business of politics, creating a lucrative market for
communications and marketing professionals. American political consultants,
working on their own abroad, are having a significant impact on
democratization not only by changing the style of global electoral
politics but also by promoting their own vision of democracy.
The fingerprints of consultants can be found on nearly every major
campaign of the past two decadesSouth Africa's first democratic
election in 1994, Boris Yeltsin's defeat of resurgent Communists
in 1995, the crucial Israeli plebiscites in 1996 and 1999, in which
Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak were the respective winners, the
election of long-time dissident Kim Dae Jung in South Korea in 1997,
the end of eight decades of PRI rule in Mexico in 2000, Tony Blair's
successful efforts in Britain, the unsuccessful campaigns to unseat
Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2002 and 2005, and even the defeat
of Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia in 2004. In fact, almost 60 percent
of U.S. political consulting firms report working overseas. 35
Their influence stretches beyond campaigns. Consultants with corporate
experience have shown candidates and democracy movements how to
adapt corporate marketing approaches for political ends. The Yugoslav
student movement "Otpor" ("Resistance") built
support for its anti-Milosevic movement using a simple slogan, "Gotov
Je!" ("It's time for him to go"), and a compelling
logo (a clenched fist in black and white). Both were plastered around
the country on 1.8 million bumper stickers (paid for with U.S. help).
"Our inspiration came from multinational companies and things
like Coca-Cola andor Levi's" said one of Otpor's student
leaders. 36 Using other well-established techniques, like door-to-door
canvassing and the targeting of key groups, Otpor created momentum
for the nonviolent ouster of Slobodan Milosevic. With the help of
the Internet and well-funded NGOs, Otpor's experience with Western
campaign techniques has spread to nascent democratic movements from
Ukraine and Zimbabwe to Iran and Egypt.
In addition, Western-style focus groups and public opinion surveys
that test the potential effectiveness of campaign strategies and
policy initiatives, and find an opponent's weaknesses, have become
de rigueur in developing democracies. In 2002, South Korean presidential
candidate Roh Moo Hyun took the advice of consultants and political
pollsters in employing anti-American rhetoric to mobilize a critical
constituency of voters under the age of 35. The strategy paid off,
despite the diplomatic ill-will it created, as Roh won the presidency
by a slim 2 percentage points. The power of polling information
is not lost even on those who fail to embrace democratic norms.
In Nepal, Maoist rebels kidnapped a poll taker who was testing public
opinion for an international polling firm. In the ensuing hostage
negotiations, the pollster's captors did not ask for money or the
release of political prisonersthey wanted the group's survey
results.
By taking on some of the most important international campaigns
of the past ten years, political consultants have put an indelible
stamp on democracy promotion. In fact, political consultants are
in some respects running their own foreign policy by deciding who
they will work with in the first place. Many say they do not choose
clients according to the size of their wallets but look for candidates
who embody a positive vision of democracy (and have the skills to
realize that vision).
The unique capabilities of political consultants present genuine
opportunities for U.S. policymakers to harness this expertise to
foreign policy ends. The campaign that ultimately ousted Slobodan
Milosevic from power in 2000 was a dramatic example of how the U.S.
government can effectively work with private political consultants
to advance specific policy objectives. Washington's aid package
to help Serbia's democrats included funds to hire leading U.S. pollsters
and political consultants. The United States also funded some NGOs,
including the International Republican Institute and the National
Democratic Institute, which organized voter education and political
training for activists, citizens, students, and the media. To be
sure, it was the courage of the Serbian opposition, and of voters
who endured violence and intimidation, that brought Milosevic down.
But political consultants provided the strategic insights and polling
data that changed the course of the opposition's flagging campaign
and gave Serbians a true political alternative. Eight years earlier,
in 1992, Doug Schoen had worked for the Yugoslav prime minister
Milan Panic in his campaign to unseat Milosevic. Milosevic's minions
managed to steal that election and, in the absence of support from
Washington, Panic's protestations of electoral theft fell on deaf
ears. In 2000, the close coordination between consultants and U.S.
policymakers (along with the media spotlight) helped guarantee a
different result.
The lesson for U.S. policymakers from the Serbian experience was
clear: defeating dictators at the ballot box can often prove cheaper
than trying to defeat them militarily. In 2000, Washington spent
an estimated $40 million helping the Serbian opposition. 37 Conversely,
the 78-day Kosovo bombing campaign in 1999 cost the United States
between $1.8 and $3 billion. 38 Still, America treads carefully
when contracting the services of "campaign warriors."
Often the government prefers to work through third parties, offering
indirect guidance and coordinating official and private efforts.
To be sure, there are critics who say that democracy assistance
amounts to funding modern-day coups. The journalist Robert Bridge
warns that when elections become an instrument of foreign policy
"democracy becomes the unintended victim in this geo-political
game of charades." 39
However, some techniques promoted by political consultants have
more to do with enforcing simple respect for the will of people
than with pushing a particular democratic model. Exit polls are
but one example. Exit polling conducted by consultants in the 2000
Serbian election campaign played a critical role in keeping the
election honest. With correct polling information leaked to the
media early on Election Day, it became much harder for the governing
clique to orchestrate voter fraud. Foreign governments and international
organizations have repeatedly used this technique to counter electoral
theft, replicating it with similarly positive results in Mexico
(2000) and Ukraine (2004) where government efforts to steal elections
were thwarted by savvy pollsters.
As American political consultants continue to work abroad, the
ripple effects of their influence on the development of democracy
will be felt globally. And, as knowledge about campaign techniques
spreads, Western methods of electioneering are evolving to suit
diverse historical and cultural contexts. Granted, in the wrong
hands, modern political campaign techniques can be manipulated to
consolidate an autocrat's power and work against democratic forces.
Nevertheless, as governments continue to foster democratization
elsewhere, they should look for ways to harness the expertise of
political consultants and other non-state actors though selective
engagement and coordination of effort. Focusing expertise that is
already in demand in the marketplace is one way of achieving foreign
policy goals through private means.
Circumventing the State Ministers gathering in May for the fifty-eighth
annual World Health Assembly in Geneva anxiously awaited the conference's
keynote speakera man whose efforts were radically changing
how states grappled with health crises. But the headliner wasn't
a doctor or a politician. He was an American businessman whose personal
billions were turning the global health community on its head.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates explained that his commitment to global
health began after he learned that diseases that had largely been
eradicated from the developed worldtuberculosis, malaria,
diphtheria, measleswere still killing millions in the developing
world. Vaccines existed, but the funds to buy them and the political
will to distribute them were lacking. Moreover, there was no market
incentive that would entice pharmaceutical firms to step forward.
Millions were dying while life-saving vaccines sat on the shelves
unused. Gates, among the world's wealthiest men, decided to put
his vast personal fortune to work to address an issue that states
were unable to fully address on their own.
Ensuring public health is among the obvious ways that states safeguard
their citizens. However, the ease of cross-border travel has helped
to transform health care from a public good into a foreign policy
issue. With epidemics like mad cow disease, SARS, and avian flu
reaching beyond borders, states are compelled to reshuffle spending
priorities. Fighting HIV/AIDS, particularly in the world's least-developed
na-tions, has become a U.S. priority, not simply for health reasons,
but also because of the disease's potential for undermining democracy
and economic development, and its crippling effect on already meager
national budgets.
Entities like the World Health Organization (WHO) play a critical
role in setting priorities and coordinating policy at the global
level. But follow-through is dependent on the stretched resources
and uncertain will of states. As a result, non-state actors are
starting to put their own money to work addressing problems that
governments are barely able to tackle. For example, even though
the U.S. Agency for International Development devotes approximately
half of its annual budget to health issues, from 1985 to 2000, USAID
spending on global health totaled only $13.8 billion. 40 In comparison,
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than $4 billion
to global health programs in the past five years alone.
That private funds can sometimes over-match public resources is
not new. What is new is that individuals are organizing to raise
the profile of issues far down the list of state priorities. For
instance, in January 2005 the Gates Foundation pledged $10 million
to develop a vaccine that would eradicate the last pockets of polio
from the globe. The pledge revived a WHO mission that states had
largely left unfunded.
Bill Gates is not only giving money, he is also helping governments
leverage their resources to tap into the power of the global capital
markets. In 2000, he put up $750 million to kick off the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)a project to
help low-income countries buy and deliver vaccines for children.
Several nations followed with their own pledges. In just two years,
GAVI's efforts saved an estimated 670,000 children and strengthened
poor countries' ability to deliver vaccines on their own.
Gates pledged another $750 million in January 2005, and governments
again followed suit. But this time Gates challenged the underlying
economics that prevented vaccines from being made by urging states,
corporations, and philanthropists to create an innovative partnership
and raise $5 billion. With an investment of this size, he reckoned,
basic economics would take over. A market that large would signal
to pharmaceutical firms that there would be stable demand for their
products. The resulting competition among firms would, in turn,
drive down drug prices and also spark renewed investment in the
development of new vaccines. By leveraging the resources of non-state
actors with those of states, Gates helped create a market incentive
for providing a previously unprofitable social good. 41
Not all global health problems can be made sufficiently attractive
to the market, but such models of public-private partnership demonstrate
that even the most difficult ones can be successfully addressed
when NSAs and states collaborate creatively and use their respective
advantages. For example, onchocerciasis, also known as "river
blindness," is the leading cause of blindness in the developing
world. The parasitic disease afflicts an estimated 18 million people
across sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America, and another 90120
million people are at risk. Merck, the New Jerseybased pharmaceutical
giant, had been on the cutting edge of parasitic research since
1975, with the discovery of the veterinary drug Ivermectin. In 1980,
Dr. Mohammed Aziz, a Merck scientist who had worked for the WHO,
wondered if Ivermectin could be adapted to treat the river blindness
he had seen devastating African communities. His trials produced
astounding results. Not only did the drug attack the parasite in
sick patients, it prevented healthy persons from becoming infected.With
one dose per year, at the cost of $1.50 per tablet, Mectizan (the
human form of Ivermectin) had the power to save lives. But most
affected patients lived in places where public health spending per
person is about $1 a year. 42 Even at pennies per tablet, the medicine
would be too expensive. When Merck approached Washington and governments
in Africa and Europe to buy the drug at cost and distribute it for
free, it was rebuffed. Faced with the prospect of shelving a drug
that could cure millions, Merck decided to donate Mectizan free
of charge. The announcement of this socially responsible corporate
act generated millions in free publicity for Merck and helped burnish
the company's corporate image.
In partnership with other non-state actors (NGOs, local community
groups) and international organizations (WHO, the World Bank), Merck
undertook the daunting task of getting the drug to some of the most
destitute parts of the world. In 1988, the program treated 255,000
people. By 2002, the number had grown to 50 million, and it is projected
to reach 90 million by 2010. 43 Merck's 15-year public-private partnership
is considered one of the leading models for corporate initiatives
on global health.
As states find themselves challenged by the scope of transnational
problems, NSAs are stepping in to contribute resources. While they
are motivated by self-interest as well as altruism, it is clear
that they are often freer than states to craft innovative approaches
to global problems. The ability of NSAs to work outside the state
apparatus and foster conditions for change can be a tremendous asset
to resource-limited states. The challenge for states is to ensure
the maintenance and continuation of public-private collaborations
that benefit the public when some of their partners may be more
accountable to shareholders than to those in need.Conflictual Relations
While some NSAs are providing services, expertise, and resources
to address global issues, others are challenging the very structure
that underpins relations between states. For example, as globalization
has advanced, U.S. courts are finding themselves increasingly involved
in foreign policy issues as they adjudicate international commercial,
environmental, and even human rights cases. Trial lawyers and their
clients have been at the forefront of these changes, advancing cases
that have ultimately challenged the authority of states as the sole
determiners of foreign policy. Not surprisingly, it is a development
that governments resist. The relationship between trial lawyers
and Washington in cases involving human rights abuses highlights
the tensions that can develop.
After the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland,
families of 270 victims filed suit against Libya in a U.S. civil
court. A team of trial lawyers represented the families in their
effort to punish a state sponsor of terrorism. It was a bold move.
Historically, sovereign nations were legally immune from prosecution
in U.S. courts without their consent under the doctrine of "sovereign
immunity." Congress reaffirmed this principle in 1976 by passing
the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), though the act did
include an exception for matters related to international trade.
(The rapid growth in global commerce had given rise to a number
of international trade disputes between companies and countries
requiring adjudication in U.S. courts.) In the 1990s, however, U.S.
courts began ruling in favor of victims of international terrorism,
challenging the notion that state sponsors of terrorism were immune
from prosecution in civil suits. In 1992, the courts found that
victims of terrorism could sue for civil damages. By 1994, they
had concluded that helping terrorists whether by providing
housing, money, or other material supportconstituted a punishable
offense.
In 1995, Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old New Jersey student, was traveling
in the Gaza Strip when she was killed by a suicide bomber, a member
of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad. Her family sued the government
of Iran, and a U.S. court awarded it $247.5 million. As the plaintiffs
quickly realized, however, collecting damages in such cases can
prove virtually impossible. Not only was it difficult to "attach"
assets belonging to foreign countries, there was an even more powerful
barrierthe State Department, which took sharp notice when
the Flatow family asked the U.S. government to seize the former
Iranian Embassy in Washington as a means of receiving its judicial
award. In effect, the plaintiffs were trying to bend foreign policy
to their personal interest. The State Department took a dim view
of a practice derided by some as "U.S. diplomacy by contingency-fee
lawyer." 44
The department continues to argue vigorously that suing foreign
countries severely complicates its ability to carry out an effective
foreign policy. The power to freeze and release assets such as embassy
property and bank accounts has long been a critical diplomatic lever.
45 The Iranian hostage crisis and the Vietnam POW/MIA issue were
both resolved, in part, with the powerful stick of blocked financial
assets. Second, resolving disputes with foreign countries through
the courts, rather than embassies, will inevitably trigger a dangerous
"tit-for-tat" against the United States. More importantly,
however, the State Department worries about such suits as a frontal
assault on the bedrock principle of sovereign immunity. Trial lawyers
retort that governments must focus more on protecting victims of
terrorism than on defending governments that promote international
violence. Too often, commercial, economic, and political interests
override the U.S. disapproval of bad behavior, as in the case of
Saudi Arabia's lack of forthrightness regarding the 15 out of 19
September 11 hijackers of Saudi origin. 46
The families of the Lockerbie victims ultimately took their case
to Congress where, in 1996, the "Flatow Amendment" to
the FSIA was passed, allowing civil suits against countries named
on the State Department's terrorism list. Still, in a last-minute
effort to avoid a presidential veto of this bill, parties agreed
to a provision allowing the president to waive a plaintiffs' right
to recovery on the grounds of "national interest." 47
The Lockerbie plaintiffs had not only successfully challenged the
principle of sovereign immunity but in doing so had opened a means
of blending individual and national interests. Libya, eager to make
the most of a diplo-matic opportunity and wanting badly to regain
its standing in the international community, negotiated a settlement
of up to $10 million for each victim killed. But the negotiation
was a unique, tripartite deal. Libya conditioned the payment on
ending its pariah status. Each family would receive the first allotment
of the settlement, $4 million, when the United Nations lifted its
air and arms embargo against Libya, another $4 million when the
United States lifted its sanctions against investment in the country,
and the final $2 million when the United States removed Libya from
its list of "state sponsors of terrorism." 48 For about
$3 billion, Libya was able to buy its way back into the global community.
The unique bonds established over the years among the parties to
the negotiations -- government officials, lawyers, and plaintiffs
-- had created the possibility for a historic diplomatic and legal
settlement.
The State Department still has sufficient power to delay and dismiss
cases that threaten national security. In cases where the state
sponsors of terrorism are U.S. allies, plaintiffs and lawyers have
adopted a more nuanced approach. Since, for example, the families
of the 9/11 victims cannot sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia directly
(only countries named on the U.S. "state sponsors of terrorism"
list are excepted from the sovereign immunity act, allies are not),
they have adopted the strategy of naming various individuals (including
members of the Saudi royal family), banks, and charitable organizations
suspected of financing Islamic terrorist organizations. Their efforts
thus far have been repeatedly thwarted by the courts on the basis
of national security.Yet states are not the only targets of trial
lawyers and plaintiffs. U.S. multinationals are now on notice that
they will be held directly responsible for business practices abroad
that violate international human rights codes. An important legal
precedent was set by a group of Burmese villagers suing the California
energy giant, Unocal. Under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, victims
of violations of international law may seek damages against U.S.-based
defendants in the U.S. civil courts. The 1996 suit, brought in Los
Angeles County Superior Court, alleged that some of the soldiers
Unocal hired to guard the construction of its Yadana pipeline project
raped, tortured, and even murdered villagers. The brutal tactics
of Myanmar's military junta were amply documented, and the court
found that Unocal, as a major investor, could be held responsible
for the human rights violations of its contractors.49
In March 2005, Unocal decided to settle a suit it felt it was likely
to lose in the court of public opinion. The settlement was not disclosed
publicly, but the outcome was not lost on other multinationals (Coca-Cola,
Exxon Mobil, and Chevron Texaco) with similar pending cases. As
the Unocal case affirmed, U.S. companies can now be held accountable
in U.S. courts for human rights abuses that occur on their watch
abroad.The Lockerbie and Unocal cases are compelling examples of
how NSAs are challenging states and forcing them to respond to powerful
grass-roots constituencies. For now, the U.S. government has taken
a wary, case-by-case approach to the legal advances of NSAs, often
trying to repel and delay their efforts. Meanwhile, non-state actors
remain undeterred in their pursuit of justice, despite the serious
problems this may create for diplomats. Litigants and trial lawyers
will likely continue to chip away at the legal and political obstacles
in their path, and by so doing redefine the rules of global relations.
Agenda Setting
Non-state actors have often influenced the domestic policy agendas
of states. Increasingly, however, their influence is being felt
internationally. Through the use of the Internet, civil society
groups are evolving into transnational coalitions whose shared vision
and collective resources have mobilized citizens to force states
to focus on a host of global issues. One of the clearest signs of
this trend is that the organizers of nearly every major intergovernmental
meeting now expect and prepare for protests. However, NSAs are going
beyond mounting protests at the barricades and are infiltrating
the policymaking process as well.
They are doing so by leveraging the will of the global public --
as exemplified by the work of the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines. In awarding the 1997 Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee
praised Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
(ICBL) for creating a "process which in the space of a few
years changed a ban on anti-personnel mines from a vision to a feasible
reality." Nongovernmental organizations had long protested
the grievous humanitarian cost of landmines, but armed forces (and
manufacturers) had staunchly defended these weapons as both efficient
and cost-effective. In 1991, ICBL brought together a handful of
dedicated NGOs to eradicate landmines globally. Using the Internet
and gruesome images of landmine victims, Jody Williams and her team
developed a powerful network of more than 1,400 groups in 90 countries.Advocacy
was only part of the network's mission. It knew that if it could
change international law, it could change global behavior. Public
pressure encouraged the first group of states to support a treaty
banning landmines. By December 1997, 122 governments had signed
on. Fifteen months later, after the fortieth country had formally
ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, it became international law.In just
six years, ICBL had accomplished what the United Nations had struggled
to achieve for decades. The ICBL had formed its own "coalition
of the willing," whose efforts have resulted in a decrease
in the number of landmine-producing countries to 14 today from 54
in the early 1990s. 50 Jody Williams noted that ICBL's success pointed
to "a whole new way of conducting diplomacy." 51 As the
French ambassador in Oslo commented at the Nobel ceremony, "This
is historic not just because of the treaty. This is historic because,
for the first time, the leaders of states have come together to
answer the will of civil society." 52
As of December 2004, 152 countries had signed the Mine Ban Treaty.
Still, 42 countries have yet to sign, including the United States.
In Washington, successive administrations have refused to endorse
the treaty, claiming that the United States is the biggest donor
to landmine clearance programs, even as its possesses the third-largest
stockpile of these weapons and reserves the right to use and manufacture
them.
However, by raising public awareness, NGOs have put the landmines
issue on the agenda, raising millions in private funds for eradication
programs, and forcing governments to respond to public pressure.
By mobilizing a transnational social movement, individuals and groups
successfully pressured democratically elected governments to change
their policies and comply with international law.The Test Ahead
The examples cited above highlight the breadth and influence of
non-state actors on foreign policy. Across the globe, NSAs are fundamentally
changing state-to-state relations. Their ability to do so is a result
of the deliberate and unintended weakening of state power in an
international system buffeted by technological and political change.In
this new world, individuals and organizations can use communications
technology to create powerful transnational networks, global commerce
and investment trumps the fiscal and monetary levers of the past,
and the removal of trade barriers is making it harder for nations
to protect domestic industries. The challenge of adaptation applies
to non-state actors as well. They are operating in a virtually unregulated
political vacuum in which the constraints on their behavior are
increasingly inadequate for coping with the challenge they pose
to existing global norms.
But the greater burden is on states, which continue to lag in adjusting
to the new NSA reality. This is scarcely surprising the doctrine
of sovereign immunity has long served as the basis of legitimacy.
It would be foolhardy to expect states willingly to surrender the
power and influence conferred by the principle. However, the influence
of non-state actors is only going to intensify, and finding the
proper balance between the responsibilities and accountability of
public and private actors may well become the foremost policy challenge
of the twenty-first century.
Notes
1. Both of the authors of this article have worked for Doug Schoen
at Penn, Schoen & Berland, Assoc., a polling and consulting
firm: Michael A. Cohen, 200205, and Maria Figueroa Küpçü,
200003.
2. Jessica T. Matthews, "Power Shift," Foreign Affairs,
vol. 76 (January/February 1997), p. 50.
3. Daphne Josselin and William Wallace, eds., Non-State Actors
in World Politics (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), p. 4.
4. Ibid., p. 5.
5. As quoted in Peter Bienart, "Backfire," Atlantic
Monthly, March 2005, p. 126.
6. Nicholas D. Kristof, "Death by a Thousand Blogs,"
New York Times, May 24, 2005.
7. "Tsunami and the Web Special Report Update: v2.0,"
January 13, 2005, http://www.
politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/ 2005/tsunami2.
8. Author interview with Peter W. Singer, Washington, DC, June
2005.
9. John M. Stopford and Susan Strange, Rival States, Rival Firms:
Competition for World Market Shares (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1991), p. 1.
10. Ann Florini, The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running
a New World (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2005),
p. 99.
11. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., The Paradox of American Power: Why the
World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003), p. 56.
12. Josselin and Wallace, Non-State Actors in World Politics,
p. 9.
13. Nye, Paradox of American Power, p. 6.
14. Gregg Easterbrook, "The End of War," New Republic,
May 30, 2005, pp. 1819.
15. As quoted in Jeffrey E. Garten, The Politics of Fortune:
A New Agenda for Business Leaders (Boston: Harvard Business
School Press, 2002), p. 154.
16. Ibid., p. 156.
17. Ibid., p. 108.
18. Florini, Coming Democracy, p. 99.
19. Garten, Politics of Fortune, p. 154.
20. A. Claire Cutler, Virginia Haufler, and Tony Porter, eds.,
Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: SUNY
Press, 1999), p. 16. For more information on intellectual property
rights and the WTO, see Susan Sell, "Multinational Corporations
as Agents of Change: The Globalization of Intellectual Property
Rights," in this volume.
21. Lee Rensselaer and Raphael Perl, "Drug Control: International
Policy and Options," Congressional Research Service, Washington,
DC, October 16, 2002.
22. U.S. Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy
Report, March 1, 2004.
23. This analysis is undertaken with particular emphasis on the
implications of NSA/state cooperation for U.S. foreign policy.
24. Peter W. Singer, "Outsourcing War," Foreign Affairs,
vol. 84 (March/April 2005), p. 122.
25. Anthony Bianco and Stephanie Anderson Forest, "Outsourcing
War," Business Week International, September 15, 2003, p.
68.
26. Peter W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized
Military Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003).
27. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Budget testimony before
the Senate-House Armed Services Committee, Washington, DC, February
17, 2005.
28. Singer, "Outsourcing War," p. 122.
29. Linda Robinson, "America's Secret Armies," U.S. News & World
Report, November 4, 2002, p. 38.
30. Renae Merle and Ellen McCarthy. "6 Employees from CACI International,
Titan Referred for Prosecution," Washington Post, August
26, 2004.
31. Kenny Gluck, director of operations for MSF, Holland, as quoted
in Paul Keilthy, "Private Security Firms in War Zones Worry NGOs,"
Reuters/AlertNet, August 11, 2004.
32. Peter W. Singer, "Warriors for Hire in Iraq," Salon.com, April
15, 2004.
33. "Private Warriors," Frontline, PBS, June 2005.
34. Larry Diamond, "Promoting Democracy in the 1990s: Actors and
Instruments, Issues and Imperatives," Report to the Carnegie Commission
on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Carnegie Corporation of New York,
December 1995, p. 40.
35. For the results of the Global Political Consultancy Survey,
see Fritz Plasser and Gunda Plasser, Global Political Campaigning:
A Worldwide Analysis of Campaign Professionals and Their Practices
(Westport, CT: Praeger , 2002).
36. "Revolution Inc," On the Media, National Public Radio, December
3, 2004.
37. Ibid.
38. "Total Cost of Allied Force Air Campaign: Preliminary Estimate,"
Center for Strategic and Bud-getary Assessments, Washington, DC,
June 1999, p. 1.
39. Robert Bridge, "Ukraine: Check or Checkmate?" Russia in Global
Affairs, vol. 3 (January March 2005), p. 45.
40. Http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_
health/home/Funding/index.html.
41. Marilyn Chase, "Malaria Trial Could Set a Model for Financing
of Costly Vaccines," Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2005.
42. P. Roy Vagelos "Social Benefits of a Successful Biomedical
Research Company: Merck," Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society, vol. 145 (December 2001), p. 577.
43. Gilbert Burnham and T. Mebrahtu, "The Delivery of Ivermectin
Mectizan," Tropical Medicine and International Health, vol. 9 (April
2004), p. A27.
44. Jennifer Senior, "A Nation Unto Himself," New York Times
Magazine, March 14, 2004.
45. Anthony J. Sebok, "Libya, Lockerbie, and the Long-Delayed Settlement
Relating to Pan Am Flight 103," FindLaw, September 8, 2003.
46. Interview with Allan Gerson, chairman, Gerson International
Law Group, and one of the lawyers responsible for having brought
the first suit against Libya on behalf of the families of the victims
of Pan Am flight 103, Washington, DC, March 31, 2005.
47. Sebok, "Libya, Lockerbie, and the Long-Delayed Settlement Relating
to Pan Am Flight 103."
48. Anthony J. Sebok, "Libya, Lockerbie, and the Lawyers." FindLaw,
June 25, 2002.
49. Joanne Mariner, "Ashcroft's Justice, Burma's Crimes, and Bork's
Revenge," FindLaw, May 26, 2003.
50. US Campaign to Ban Landmines, www.
banminesusa.org.
51. Newshour, PBS, October 10, 1997.
52. Jody Williams, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 1997.
* Michael A. Cohen and Maria Figueroa Küpçü
are codirectors of the Privatization of Foreign Policy Project at
the World Policy Institute.
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