Military Privatization in South Korea

Abstract

Abstract Over the past decade, global trends toward privatization have reached the national security arena, which had generally been considered a monopolized realm of the state. After reviewing this trend and controversies surrounding military outsourcing around the world, especially in the United States, where it is no longer possible for any large-scale military intervention without a major involvement of Private Military Companies (PMCs), this paper assesses the trend of military privatization in South Korea, a country marked by intense Cold War tension for more than 50 years. The South Korean military is in transition from a manpower-oriented, quantitative force structure to an intelligence and knowledge-oriented, technology-intensive force structure. Given the constraints in financial resources, outsourcing is suggested as key to transform the South Korean military in the 21st century security environment. Following lessons and controversies of the activities of American PMCs, this paper focuses on t...