The common defense: Challenging state authority and the citizen army through the privatization of force.

摘要

The national army represents the strength of a nation and, ideally, its monopoly on force allows the state to respond to emergencies by deploying loyal and well-organized citizen soldiers. This thesis explores the exponential growth of the U.S. private military and security industry to reveal how commodified force is tainting the uniformed military's global mission. The dilution of the professional military is displacing volunteer troops with corporate fighters, thus seemingly undermining the state's authority to exact order. In this thesis, I argue that privatized force inhibits the American state's ability to demonstrate moral governance and secure certain strategic advantages that are necessary to maintain the global stature of the United States. I will provide a detailed synopsis as to what constitutes privatized force and account for the repercussions associated with its use abroad, particularly the United State's waning influence in an increasingly dangerous world.