Overview
- Investigates the link between domestic political constraints and democracies’ use of private military contractors
- Conceptualizes military privatization as a politically rather than financially cost-effective strategy
- Examines how constraints on the mobilization of soldiers trigger an increasing use of private military contractors
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About this book
This book investigates the connection between tightening mobilization constraints and the use of PMSCs in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Drawing on neoclassical realism and institutionalist theory, it conceptualizes democracies’ use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) as an attempt to circumvent the tightening constraints on the mobilization of military power. The use of private military contractors is less subjected to parliamentary restrictions and less visible to public opinion than the deployment of soldiers. Rather than cheaper in financial terms, PMSCs are therefore politically cost-effective, as they enable decision-makers to minimize the institutional obstacles on conducting military operations and the electoral costs attached thereto. The need to reduce the ex ante hurdles and the ex post costs of military deployments fills the blind spots of alternative explanations for the use of PMSCs based on effectiveness, ideology, and organizational interests.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Eugenio Cusumano is Associate Professor of political science at the University of Messina, Italy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Mobilization Constraints and Military Privatization
Book Subtitle: The Political Cost-Effectiveness of Outsourcing Security
Authors: Eugenio Cusumano
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16423-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16422-4Published: 13 December 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16425-5Published: 13 December 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-16423-1Published: 12 December 2022
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 240
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: International Security Studies