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Empire's Labor: The Global Army That Supports U.S. Wars

Online ISBN:
9781501716393
Print ISBN:
9781501742170
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

Empire's Labor: The Global Army That Supports U.S. Wars

Adam Moore
Adam Moore
University of California, Los Angeles
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Published online:
21 May 2020
Published in print:
15 November 2019
Online ISBN:
9781501716393
Print ISBN:
9781501742170
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

In a dramatic unveiling of the little-known world of contracted military logistics, this book examines the lives of the global army of laborers who support US overseas wars. The book brings to the reader the experience of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who perform jobs such as truck drivers and administrative assistants at bases located in warzones in the Middle East and Africa. It highlights the changes the U.S. military has undergone since the Vietnam War, when the ratio of contractors to uniformed personnel was roughly 1:6. In Afghanistan it has been as high as 4:1. This growth in logistics contracting represents a fundamental change in how the United States fights wars, with the military now dependent on a huge pool of contractors recruited from around the world. It also has social, economic, and political implications that extend well beyond the battlefields. Focusing on workers from the Philippines and Bosnia, two major sources of “third country national” military labor, the book explains the rise of large-scale logistics outsourcing since the end of the Cold War; describes the networks, infrastructures, and practices that span the spaces through which people, information, and goods circulate; and reveals the experiences of foreign workers, from the hidden dynamics of labor activism on bases, to the economic and social impacts these jobs have on their families and the communities they hail from. Through extensive fieldwork and interviews, the book gives voice to the agency and aspirations of the many thousands of foreigners who labor for the US military.

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