War Is Still a Racket: Private Military Contracting, US Imperialism, and the Iraq War

Abstract:As the Trump era revitalized questions of racial capitalism and the place of the US in the world in spectacular fashion, this essay centers the Iraq War as a key site of twenty-first century US imperialism. Specifically, it considers the large-scale privatization of the US war apparatus, and the ways in which the proliferation of corporate actors after 9/11 both enabled and transformed the imperial power of the state through military contracting. Not only did defense contractors underwrite traditional military operations, they worked to shift power from civil federal institutions to corporations. This allowed contractors to dilute the US government's onus of responsibility and operate with impunity by evading the barest forms of democratic accountability. The enduring legacies of these processes into the present highlight the critical role of corporate power in the structure and maintenance of contemporary US empire.