ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the discourses underlying the increasing use of contractors, showing the importance of economic considerations in justifying the increasing resort to military logistics firms and private security companies (PSCs) in the US, the UK and other countries. It looks at the existing studies providing a comparative analysis of the cost of commercial support versus the in-house delivery of both military support and security tasks. The chapter presents the problematise the body of evidence by analysing the arguments deployed by critics in order to call into question the cost-effectiveness of contractor support. It shows that while economic analysis has a key role in the study of contractor support, the decision to outsource is an inherently political choice that cannot be disentangled from broader strategic, legal and ethical considerations. The chapter presents the economic debate surrounding the efficiency of outsourcing, the contribution that economic scholarship can provide to the study of outsourcing.
