Fragmented power and state-corporate killings: a critique of blackwater in Iraq

Abstract

Especially given the invasion of Iraq, a growing number of criminologists have been attending to the transformation of state power and security within a neo-liberal political context. Although the capacity and influence of the state is not disappearing altogether there is a discernible erosion of authority within the sovereign state. In the realm of policing, we witness continued fragmentation of authority in which state power is relinquished to expanding commercial markets. The de-coupling of policing and government raises serious questions about the changing architecture of liberal democratic societies, prompting concerns over the waning monopoly of legitimate coercion. The project here explores the controversy over the use of private military firms in occupied Iraq, particularly the recent killings of civilians by Blackwater personnel. While offering specific details of those incidents, the analysis elaborates on state–corporate crime by revealing how state power is dispersed to the private sector; by doing so, the article examines how private military personnel evade prosecution for war crimes and other human rights abuses.