Public Diplomacy: 'Medicine is the universal language'
Interview with the CEO of Project HOPE
Publication Date: September-October 2008
One of the most effective public diplomacy resources for the United States is the public-private partnership to deliver basic medical care to people of developing countries. The high-visibility effort costs little, leverages private funds, and provides high-visibility results. An early pioneer in this effort is Project HOPE, which for 50 years has worked with the US military to provide free healthcare to the world's poor. Led by the Navy, the Pentagon is increasingly embracing this public-private partnership approach as part of counterinsurgency and global stability operations. IWP Annenberg Professor J Michael Waller interviewed Project Hope CEO John P Howe, III about the ongoing humanitarian innovations. Waller is also editor of Serviam, a magazine devoted to private sector global stability solutions.  {read more}

Private intelligence contracting is here to stay
Endless opportunities for graduate students
Publication Date: July-August 2008
The large-scale contracting of intelligence services and products to private companies is increasingly controversial - but the practice is as old as the nation and has served well in times of war and peace. In this article, Dr Waller takes a look at the widespread opportunities intelligence contracting has for young professionals.  {read more}

Partnership against heroin: Contractors help US combat narcoterrorists in Afghanistan
IWP Professor goes to Afghanistan with Blackwater
Publication Date: March-April 2008
IWP Professor J. Michael Waller traveled to Afghanistan with Blackwater Worldwide to study and participate in the company's training programs for the US military. Those programs included the setting up and training of Afghan counternarcotics police and border police, and supporting the Army's 82nd Airborne Division with low-cost, low-altitude drops of ammunition and supplies to troops at forward operating bases (FOBs) in heavy combat areas on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.In this article for Serviam magazine, Dr Waller writes about the partnership between the US military, Afghan authorities and private military contractors (PMCs) to fight the drug war in Afghanistan. See Dr Waller's YouTube videos from the trip at: http://www.youtube.com/user/sirbart1183.  {read more}

Cultural battlespace: Muslim rockers resist extremism
Publication Date: January-February 2008
Muslim pop artists are leading a youthful resistance to Islamist extremism around the world. This article focuses on efforts by composers, musicians and performers in Pakistan, the United Kingdom and Indonesia.  {read more}

Accountability and private security contractors
Publication Date: November-December 2007
When a private contractor for the U.S. government abides with the letter of the law, but the law is so flawed that it doesn’t correspond with reality, whose fault is it? The contractor’s, of course. That’s the apparent reasoning of critics in Congress and the press who blame private security providers for not “being accountable” or even for “operating outside the law.” Everything seems fine as long as the contractor performs perfectly. Not even the congressmen and senators who personally benefit from the services will complain. One mistake or incident, however, has people, especially lawmakers, looking for someone to blame. In a contentious issue like a war, the matter can quickly become politicized. And those who benefit from the services of private providers, not those who make the laws and issue the contracts, will suffer. IWP Professor J. Michael Waller writes about the issue in the November-December 2007 issue of Serviam magazine.  {read more}

Private security contractors in America: 400 years and counting
Publication Date: September-October 2007
Private military contractors (PMCs) and private security contractors (PSCs) mark their 400th anniversary as one of the first industries in America, with the landing of Captain John Smith at Jamestown. This article in Serviam magazine traces the history of PSCs in what is now the United States.  {read more}

Private security contractors and the American tradition
Publication Date: September 28, 2007
The bitter controversy over the government's reliance on private security providers shows an insufficient grasp of history, IWP's Professor J. Michael Waller writes in RealClearPolitics.com. America's private security contractor tradition, he argues, dates to 1607 when the Virginia Company of London hired Captain John Smith, a former professional soldier, to run security operations for the settlement at Jamestown. In his essay, published September 28, Waller traces the private security contractor industry in America over the past 400 years.  {read more}

Allies who arm our adversaries should receive no business from US
Providence Journal
Publication Date: May 24, 2006
The arms embargo recently announced by the U.S. against the revolutionary regime in Venezuela is long overdue. Venezuela's dictator, Hugo Chavez, has gone out of his way to align his country with terrorist regimes, aid extremist movements and break anti-terrorism treaty obligations.But at least one of our North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies wants to ignore U.S. security concerns and sell military equipment to Venezuela - while competing to sell the same equipment to the U.S. Coast Guard and Pentagon.Worse, that ostensible ally is collaborating with the dictator's propaganda campaign to trash the United States, while simultaneously lobbying Congress for billions of dollars to buy its military products.  {read more}

Larry, Curly and Osama: Ridiculing terrorists as a weapon of war
Los Angeles Times
Publication Date: Sunday, May 21, 2006
OSAMA BIN LADEN says he doesn't fear dying. He says he fears being humiliated. So let's give it to him.Bin Laden and others have thrived on the almost obsessive American focus on them as personal rivals. We give them the coveted "Enemy of the Great Satan" brand whenever our national leaders single them out by name.What would happen if we ridiculed the terrorists instead?  {read more}

When our allies arm our adversaries: What to do when diplomacy fails
The case of Spanish military sales to Venezuela
Publication Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2006
When diplomacy, treaties and laws fail to stop foreign defense firms from exporting military technology in ways that threaten US security interests, policymakers often find themselves wondering what to do.Other, simple instruments remain available but seldom utilized. In the global economy where US defense procurement necessarily depends on foreign military suppliers, Washington has a simple and non-coercive option: help the foreign manufacturer to choose sides.  {read more}