ABSTRACT
The past two decades have seen a significant reliance by states on the services of private contractors in sustaining the war-fighting capabilities of national armed forces. While the phenomenon of outsourcing in the military context is by no means new,1 the expansion of this market in the post-Cold War period has been extraordinary.2 In particular, the US use of contractors in recent conflicts has risen to such a degree that in Iraq and Afghanistan the number of contracted personnel deployed has been almost constantly higher than the number of troops deployed.3
