ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the history of outsourcing in the United States and examines the main periods of American military privatization. Historical accounts of the United States' use of military contractors and private security companies (PSCs) often start at the end of the Cold War. The United States deployed more contractors during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars than allied forces deployed national troops. PSC are a required part of any modern US military deployment. This dependence on private firms may bring to mind President Eisenhower's caution regarding the growth of the military industrial complex. Contractors are prevalent in United States security culture. Washington's belief in neo-liberal economics, its long history of outsourcing, and a shortage of Pentagon personnel allowed military contracting to creep from supply and support contracts to protective security contracts. In the early twentieth century the idea of big government referred to large bureaucracies. However, since the end of World War II, government agencies were hollowed out.
