Privatization of Military Functions

<p>Since the mid-1990s the operations of private for profit military companies have been the subject of increased political and media scrutiny. These firms have been established and staffed mostly by ex-military professionals from the US UK France Israel and South Africa and are generally headquartered in those countries. Several of the currently active companies have been in business for decades providing various support functions - logistics security services crime prevention and the like. Recent attention has been mostly directed towards companies that have contracted to provide direct combat and combat operational support to governments - roles that have been the domain of national military forces since the middle of the 19th century. Publicly known contracts of this kind and the number of companies openly willing to be party to such contracts have been in fact quite limited.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>