ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the different strands of the argument and offers an outlook for the longer-term trajectory of the outsourcing of military support services. It offers a conceptual toolbox to study the policy process which draws on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Policy Network Theory. It then presents the historical trajectory of supplying the US and UK armies, the rules of admission to the relevant policy networks, that is the mechanisms that determine who participates in making acquisition policy. The chapter looks at the defence services acquisition policy networks, discuss their strong bias towards business', and explores the bias's main implications. The policy process involves a complex set of actors who interact over long periods of time on a particular policy issue. The literature on defence policy-making does not really offer approaches that would be able to include contractors either, at least none that can be applied to several countries because they are typically designed for specific states or bureaucracies.
