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The “Camo Economy”: The Economic & Political Camouflage of Military Contracting

At least half of U.S. federal spending on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas in the “War on Terror” has gone to private contractors. Contracts have increased by 164 percent since 2001, particularly for services in or near the battlefield, including food, housing, and security services. Heidi Peltier, Assistant Research Professor in the BU Department of Political Science and a Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow, will discuss the growth in what she calls the “Camo Economy,” attributable to ideological, political, and economic reasons, drawing on the findings of her recent report for the Costs of War Project. This includes the political camouflage of using contractors in place of troops, so that both financial and human costs of war are obscured. She will discuss the commercialization of the military and the implications for federal budgets and labor markets, as military contracting is both costly to taxpayers and extremely profitable to contractors, due in part to commercial monopolies and other features built into the structure of military contracts.Join us on Wednesday, November 18 for this webinar in a series exploring various costs and consequences of the post-9/11 wars. The seminars are part of the “20 Years of War” research series, a two-year collaboration with the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University to expand the ongoing Costs of War project. The “20 Years of War” research series explores the human, financial, environmental, social, and political costs of the post-9/11 wars and illustrates how the impacts of the wars will ripple into the future.All seminars in this series will take place virtually on the Pardee Center’s YouTube channel.

When 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Location YouTube