Global privatized power Heritage politics and private military contractors in Iraq

Maria Theresia Starzmann

Abstract: The practice of archaeologists and other heritage specialists to embed with the US military in Iraq has received critical attention from anthropologists. Scholars have highlighted the dire consequences of such a partnership for cul- tural heritage protection by invoking the imperialist dimension of archaeological knowledge production. While critical of state power and increasingly of milita- rized para-state actors like the self-proclaimed Islamic State, these accounts typi- cally eclipse other forms of collaboration with non-state organizations, such as private military and security companies (PMSCs). Focusing on the central role of private contractors in the context of heritage missions in Iraq since 2003, I dem- onstrate that the war economy’s exploitative regime in regions marked by violent conflict is intensified by the growth of the military-industrial complex on a global scale. Drawing on data from interviews conducted with archaeologists working in the Middle East, it becomes clear how archaeology and heritage work prop up the coloniality of power by tying cultural to economic forms of control. Keywords: coloniality of power, globalization, heritage, Iraq, military, political economy

The privatization of war for its military operations. The outsourcing of military and security tasks to private com- The world is a slanted playing field. The cir- panies has made the US-led war in Iraq “the cuits of capitalism are anything but circular, most privatized in American military history” instead forming a lopsided matrix that thrives (Miller 2010). The various ways in which the on military control and economic exploita- private security sector is entangled with state tion. The US-led war in Iraq was deeply em- interests underscores more than anything the bedded in this matrix, driven as it was by a validity of the notion of a US military-indus- desire for profit and the private expropriation trial complex. It also highlights how the ex- of resources. The notorious blurring of the pansion of capitalism is facilitated by violent boundaries between state agencies and private military encounters, which not only affect po- businesses—a symptom of late capitalism—is litical regimes but seep into the crevices of all also illustrated by the increasing reliance of spheres of life, including cultural traditions, the US government on private contractors histories, and heritages.

Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 73 (2015): 114–124 © Stichting Focaal and Berghahn Books doi:10.3167/fcl.2015.730109 Global privatized power | 115

When the US government first reacted to during the US occupation of Iraq (Scahill 2007). the destruction of cultural heritage sites in the At the time, numerous contractors all over the wake of the Iraq War, sending archaeologists country engaged in “reckless conduct,” includ- and other specialists into the field, anthropolo- ing “extralegal actions” carried out on behalf of gists variously criticized collaboration with the the US state (Scahill 2010: 22). In a Congres- military (e.g., González 2007, 2009; Hamilakis sional Service Research Report from 2009, a 2003; Teijgeler 2008). One of the main points number of companies, including Triple Canopy, of contention was the notion that this partner- were accused of “shooting civilians, using exces- ship contributed to a form of imperialism that sive force, being insensitive to local customs or sought political control over the country’s cul- beliefs, or otherwise behaving inappropriately” tural resources, specifically its heritage and his- (Schwartz 2009: n.p.). tory (Lutz 2006; Pollock 2003; Scham 2001). Given that discussions of archaeological work But scholars have yet to investigate the degree in conflict-ridden Iraq tend to highlight how to which the economic interests of the US state archaeologists embed with the military—some- and, more important, of the private military thing the professionals I spoke to have described industry figure into practices of heritage protec- as “necessity” rather than “choice”—the role tion and archaeological work in Iraq. This omis- of private military and security companies sion is curious insofar as cultural imperialism (PMSCs), many of which continue to operate in thrives on neoliberal practices of commodifica- the service of heritage missions, requires scruti- tion and privatization of cultural heritage. What nization (Hamilakis 2009; Teijgeler 2009, 2011).1 is more, the assistance provided to build up This is no less important today than it was more Iraq after the war, including the restoration of than a decade ago when the United States and its the country’s major archaeological and cultural allies invaded Iraq. The activities of private con- heritage sites, took advantage of Paul Bremer’s tractors in the region highlight particular and call for “an open economy” (Smith 2005: 178), persistent problems of super-modern conflict, which sought to liberalize foreign investment such as the privatization of the security sector, and expose the country to the profit-gouging and they seriously compromise the sovereignty strategies of private companies. of the states that are parties to a conflict. Govern- As the US government did not work exclu- ment contractors are, after all, not simply supple- sively with military forces to accompany ments to state power that offer defensive security heritage experts into Iraq after the country’s services, even if companies such as Blackwater invasion, the two main companies that pro- portray themselves “as a patriotic extension of vided security for archaeologists between 2003 the U.S. military” (Scahill 2006: 11). Many firms and 2011 were the private contractors Blackwa- provide a variety of services that go far beyond ter and Triple Canopy. Blackwater, whose name personal security and logistical support, ranging was later changed to XeServices and Academi, “from routine military tasks to contract over- has become infamous due to a high-profile sight to rural development” (Miller 2005), and incident in 2007 when employees of the cor- they can include the maintenance and opera- poration killed 17 civilians, including women tion of weapons systems or prisoner detention and children, in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. As even after a conflict has been officially declared a result of the unprovoked shooting, the com- over (Isenberg 2012). The fact that archaeolo- pany’s operating license for Iraq has not been gists and heritage professionals choose to rely renewed, and earlier this year four former on the services of private contractors inscribes Blackwater security guards received long-term the practices of heritage management within a prison sentences for voluntary manslaughter global regime of power that contributes to the in a federal ruling. But Blackwater was not the perpetuation and proliferation of the military- only firm implicated in acts of wanton violence capitalist matrix. 116 | Maria Theresia Starzmann

Archaeology and security in Iraq at 157,800 (Belasco 2009), private contractors employed 180,000 people in Iraq (including sol- In the early years of the Iraq War, scholars iden- diers as well as other workers, such as transla- tified the US military and other coalition forces tors, drivers, cooks, etc.), thus constituting an as the primary (though not exclusive) provid- armed force larger than the US military contin- ers of security to archaeologists. Since the be- gent in the country (Risen 2008). Since 2009, ginning of the occupation, however, heritage the year when overall troop levels in Iraq began specialists have collaborated extensively with to significantly decrease, statistics on PMSCs PMSCs. Government officials as well as re- show a more or less steady rise in the number searchers have repeatedly stated that heritage of armed contractors. As late as January 2013, protection in the country was extremely chal- there were still around 12,500 private security lenging if not inconceivable without the use of contractors operating in the country (Lamothe personal security. This situation has only inten- 2013). sified since the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq in late 2011, and once again with the rise of Armed security the self-proclaimed Islamic State and its targeted destruction of sites of “idolatry” (a term used to Available statistics provide only scant informa- designate not only pre-Islamic sites but also cul- tion on the role of PMSCs in heritage missions tural heritage claimed by non-Sunni Muslims and archaeological research projects, however. as well as non-Muslim religious groups). In an Interviews I conducted with several colleagues, article published by Reuters in early 2014, the who have worked in Iraq between 2003 and British archaeologist Jane Moon talked about 2011 or still have ongoing research projects in her recent fieldwork in Ur in southern Iraq. “We the country, suggest a regular reliance of ar- have to have security wherever we go,” she told chaeologists on private security services during a journalist, “but hey, you know it’s worth it. field trips to Iraq. My findings indicate that sev- This place is fantastic” (Lyon 2014). The nature eral private security firms were deployed in the of the security services provided and the extent framework of USAID programs and cultural to which their use involves partnerships with heritage initiatives, which the US State Depart- notorious private contractors such as Black- ment carried out in collaboration with North water or Triple Canopy is, however, still often American research institutions. The State Uni- shrouded in mystery and silence (Price 2009). versity of New York at Stony Brook, for exam- While we know that the US government ple, contracted with at least one private security contracted with a number of private-sector company, Neareast Resources, in the context of companies to provide logistical support and a HEAD project, short for “Higher Education security to archaeological expeditions visiting and Development for Archaeology and Envi- Iraq as early as 2003, we rarely learn who these ronmental Health Research.”2 According to its contractors were. Yet researchers today increas- website, Neareast Resources has a subdivision ingly hire private security companies or private called Neareast Security Services (NESS), which bodyguards instead of military or police pro- provides “armed security” in a “difficult and tection, and supply for these services is ample. dangerous time” in Iraq, for both public institu- During the Iraq War, private soldiers or guns- tions (including government organizations) and for-hire constituted the second-largest armed private businesses.3 contingent after the US forces. According to the Dr. John Curtis, who traveled to Iraq in US Department of Defense (DOD), almost 90 2003 and 2004 in his capacity as the Keeper of percent of them were armed (Schwartz 2009). the Department of the Middle East at the Brit- At the height of the US military surge in 2008, ish Museum, also relied on two private secu- when the number of US troops in Iraq peaked rity contractors during his trips—Pilgrim Elite Global privatized power | 117

(which today calls itself Blue Mountain Group) selves are local firms. Like other global busi- and Control Risks Group (Curtis 2009). Pilgrim nesses, small private security firms and even Elite, a private firm based in Wales, hit the news individual bodyguards often have unexamined in 2012 after it became known that the US gov- ties to transnational contractors, only a portion ernment had hired the company to protect its of which is American-based. While the employ- consulate in Benghazi, Libya (Ackerman and ees of private contractors typically include US Shachtman 2012). Media outlets reported that nationals, firms also hire local nationals and a just months before the attack on the consulate large number of individuals from non-coali- in September 2012, which resulted in the death tion countries, such as Chile, Fiji, Nepal, and of Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens and Nigeria, who are referred to as third-country three other State Department and CIA person- nationals (TCNs). A separate group of private nel, the United States had signed a contract with military and security personnel active in Iraq is the company for almost US$800,000 (Zakaria et composed of expatriates, or coalition nationals, al. 2012). The second private security firm that from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Curtis traveled with in Iraq, the Control Risks and South Africa, many of whom have previ- Group, also contracts with the US government ous experience working in law enforcement. and was apparently involved in “pitched battles As a consequence, as the UN Working Group in Iraq” (Mathieu and Dearden 2006: 5). on Mercenaries has noted, it is extremely dif- In addition to providing security to govern- ficult to assess to what extent private contrac- ment-sponsored research projects or to indi- tors that are registered and categorized as Iraqi vidual archaeologists, other PMSCs active in “are in fact owned and managed by Iraqis” Iraq are hired by private heritage organizations, (DeWinter-Schmitt 2013: 25). And whereas such as the World Monuments Fund or The Memorandum 17 of the Coalition Provisional American Academic Research Institute in Iraq Authority resolved that all private military and (TAARII). TAARII is an organization founded security companies “must be registered with the in 1989, which coordinates visits of its mem- Iraqi Ministry of Interior (MoI) by June 1, 2005” bers to Iraq through a local bureau in Baghdad. (Palou-Loverdos and Armendáriz 2011: 34), the As one interviewee relayed, this bureau pro- website of the US Embassy in Iraq indicates that vides security for researchers who plan trips to most of these registered security providers are archaeological sites, museums, universities, and global companies, such as Triple Canopy, which state offices all over the country, hiring what operate under permits from the Iraqi govern- has been described to me as “local”—that is, ment. Even after 2011, when many interna- Iraqi—security companies. Other colleagues tional contractors active in Iraq were replaced too have indicated to me that more and more with Iraq-based firms, an independent research archaeological teams now comfortably trust report has found that the majority of local com- in what they call “local security,” and they see panies are still managed by foreign nationals this increasing reliance on private contractors or subcontracted by transnational companies, as a positive indicator that the direct violence even if the staff on the ground is composed of exerted by the state and the military in Iraq has local nationals (DeWinter-Schmitt 2013). overall lessened (see also Schiller and Fouron This training of local security forces is 2003). actively supported by the US government, which considers it “an important element in Global issues DOD’s counterinsurgency strategy” (Schwartz 2009: 6). The precedent for this practice was set Although many of the PMSCs that work in Iraq during the Vietnam War as part of a stratagem today do indeed train and hire local people, of “Vietnamization” that involved the train- this does not mean that the companies them- ing of local security forces (Turse 2013; Young 118 | Maria Theresia Starzmann

1991). Similarly, during the conflict in the Bal- be over 100 billion US dollars. This money does kans in the 1990s, the United States “used a pri- not exclusively stay with the companies, how- vate security contractor to train Croat troops ever, but is used to establish ties with military to conduct operations against Serbian troops” and financial institutions as well as private busi- (del Prado 2010). But local nationals are also nesses worldwide, thus creating “a cartel unit- cheaper to hire, because they are typically ing high tech weaponry (BAE systems, United paid only a fraction of the salary that person- Defence Industries, Lockheed Martin), with nel from other countries, especially countries speculative financiers (Lazard Frères, Goldman in the Global North, receive. The company Sachs, Deutsche Bank), together with raw mate- Blue Mountain Group, for example, which had rial cartels (British Petroleum, Shell Oil) with accompanied the archaeologist Curtis to Iraq in on the ground, private military and security the early years of the war, relied mainly on local companies” (del Prado 2010). nationals for its operations in Libya. As a news In comparison with the low salaries of local report from October 2012 states, the company staff, as well as of certain US military person- kept staff costs low by conducting no more than nel, the relatively high payments for US or a “casual” recruiting and screening process; coalition nationals employed by PMSCs suggest some of the individuals who were hired, such as that their status closely resembles that of mer- a local teacher, had “never held a gun” in their cenaries. While the definition of a mercenary as lives (Zakaria et al. 2012). Indeed, according stipulated in international conventions is strict to the US government, some of the gross vio- and relies on cumulative criteria, it appears lations of human rights that occurred in the that employees of private contractors are often context of private contractor operations are due motivated by business interests and the desire to “poor contract management” (Miller 2010). for personal gain. It is noteworthy that, even if In the case of Iraq, this led to what a report by they cannot be considered mercenaries in the the Center for Research on Globalization lists legal sense as defined by the Geneva Conven- as “summary executions, acts of torture, cases tion, the staff of private contractors resemble of arbitrary detention; of trafficking of persons; mercenaries insofar as they are typically “prom- serious health damages caused by their activi- ised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, ties; as well as attempts against the right of self- material compensation substantially in excess of determination” (del Prado 2010). that promised or paid to combatants of similar That the cost effectiveness of hiring local staff ranks and functions in the armed forces of the can clearly override concerns for proper con- Party” (article 47 of the Protocol Additional to duct is also echoed in a memorandum issued the Geneva Convention). by US Army General Raymond Odierno, which states that employment of Iraqis does not only Local concerns help “eliminate the root causes of the insur- gency—poverty and lack of economic oppor- Notwithstanding the fact that PMSCs constitute tunity” but also “saves money” (Schwartz 2009: important nodes in a global network of military 6). The lower wages that local employees receive industrial interests, archaeologists continue to for carrying out the exact same tasks as their collaborate with private security contractors, Western colleagues is indicative of an exploit- and they do so despite the extralegal tactics used ative global hierarchy, which reserves “inferior” by these companies. Indeed, what practitioners wages for “inferior” people (Starzmann 2012: of heritage management and archaeology often 411) while allowing companies to increase their ignore is that private military and security firms profit margin considerably. At this point in are largely positioned outside the reach of ju- time, the annual market revenue of the private dicial frameworks that are supposed to govern security and military industry is estimated to in the context of violent conflict. Although the Global privatized power | 119 personnel of global corporations are techni- Despite being perceived by the archaeolo- cally required to respect international law, state gists I interviewed as “respectful and interested,” institutions only minimally regulate the pri- private military and security companies do vate security sector and, as a consequence, the not usually receive the kind of cultural aware- politico-legal status of PMSCs remains highly ness training that most US military personnel ambiguous (Elsea 2010). As private contrac- stationed in Iraq had to undergo (Emberling tors operate in a de facto legal vacuum, cases 2008). Once successfully established in a coun- in which employees of PMSCs commit gross try shaken by extreme levels of violence, private human rights abuses all too frequently remain contractors often engage in aggressive con- without judicial consequences (ICRC Resource duct toward local communities. Even if state- Center 2013). Yet, as long as the security per- directed forms of violence may have decreased sonnel accompanying archaeological teams are, in Iraq with the withdrawal of US troops, this or appear, unarmed because they do not openly suggests that levels of privatized violence would carry heavy weapons, they are often not officially have risen in those regions where PMSCs are recognized as members of PMSCs. Those who deployed. As recent as 2010, heavily armed con- hire private security may prefer to consider the tractors were involved in the killing of unarmed armed employees of such companies civilians as civilians in Iraq, which “stirred anger among long as they merely work for an archaeological locals” (Miller 2010; see also del Prado 2011; team and, at the moment of their employment, Schwartz and Swain 2011). The two major com- do not formally assume combat functions. panies that have in the past been implicated in What is more, individuals working in the such violent conduct—Blackwater and Triple heritage sector often recount positive experi- Canopy (which merged into a joint enterprise ences of contracting with private security firms, with Academi, Constellis Holdings, in June arguing that they could actually prove “helpful” 2014)—have allegedly provided security for in interactions with local people. They attribute archaeological teams working with the US State this to the fact that the companies’ staff mem- Department in Iraq up until 2011. bers tend to wear plain clothes, not uniforms Even though the US military ceased its active like US military personnel, which supposedly combat role on the ground in Iraq in 2011, the makes them “less threatening” to Iraqi civil- US government is all but removed from political ians. But the appearance of private military and interventions in the Middle East. As President security companies was, and still is, not always Barack Obama has authorized the deployment unthreatening. According to archaeologists who of 450 more American troops in June of this worked in Iraq between 2003 and 2008, it was year to aid the Iraqi military in battling the self- not until after the Blackwater incident of Sep- proclaimed Islamic State, it is likely that con- tember 2007 that the culture of private con- tracts between the US state and PMSCs are to tractors in the country changed dramatically. be renewed or extended rather than terminated. Since then, many PMSCs try to keep a low pro- Hence it is paramount that we carefully interro- file. After 2007, a colleague told me, employ- gate the political motivations attached to work ees of private security firms operating in Iraq in the name of heritage and cultural property were suddenly “painted up like civilians,” thus protection. highlighting the ability of many contractors to The heritage salvage missions in Syria that switch effortlessly between active and passive the US government has co-sponsored in recent security roles. Company mottos, such as Triple years are a case in point: In August 2014, the Canopy’s “Assess, Avert, Achieve,” are also US Department of State and the American meant to suggest that the services these con- School of Oriental Research (ASOR) signed a tractors provide are more about self-defense US$600,000 cooperative agreement to launch than actual maneuver operations. the Syrian Heritage Initiative (SHI). The SHI, 120 | Maria Theresia Starzmann whose goal it is “to document, protect, and pre- These profit-making strategies are directly serve the cultural heritage of war-torn Syria,” indicative of what Anibal Quijano has termed seems to be not so much a reaction to the civil the “coloniality of power” (2000), which high- war in the country as it constitutes a direct lights that the war against Iraq, while resting answer to the acts of the self-proclaimed Islamic on a colonialist foundation, fits perfectly into State.4 Run by eminent international scholars, a model of capitalist exploitation. The specific the SHI was founded in the late summer of 2014, ways in which private contractors operate in that is, more than three years after the first polit- Iraq both violate international humanitarian ical uprisings and armed encounters between law and exploit local labor. This observation Syrian government forces and various rebel also suggests that the imperialist dimension groups had occurred. Indeed, by the time the of discourses of heritage management and the US government and ASOR signed their agree- protection of archaeological sites, which has ment, tensions between the self-proclaimed been stressed by other scholars, is not merely Islamic State and the Army of the Mujahideen, an issue of cultural control. Of course, it is true the Free Syrian Army, and the Islamic Front that due to its articulation of hegemonic narra- had risen considerably. Although reports on the tives about the history of Iraq, archaeology has activities of PMSCs on the ground in Syria are been a major conduit in the establishment and still missing, such collaboration between sup- legitimization of the cultural dominance of the posedly independent academic organizations “West” over the “Oriental Other.” Scholars have, like ASOR (a nonprofit organization that claims for example, long recognized notions such as “apolitical” status) and the US State Department the “cradle of civilization” as products of colo- take on a different quality when considering nial discourses that lie at the root of practices the fact that the US government continues to of political oppression and dispossession (Bah- contract with PMSCs.5 After all, these private rani 1998; Meskell 2005). However, the power of firms do not merely provide relatively inex- these discourses, while pervasive and insistent, pensive security for US installations in conflict lies not in their cultural imaginary alone but zones and war-torn regions. Because they also in their conjunction with economic forms of “outsource political risk” (Brannen 2014), they control. Quijano indicates as much by insisting have the power to dissolve any sense of politi- that the cultural forms of domination that we cal responsibility in the US state just as much as can witness today are not only grounded in but among heritage professionals. have indeed outlived the existence of the colony. Their persistence is the result of a geopolitical model of power that has developed along two The globalization of conflict structurally linked axes of domination—racism and capitalism—and culminated in what we Even though not all archaeologists may come recognize today as the uneven process of glo- into direct contact with such notorious trans- balization, which collapses race and poverty national contractors like Blackwater, heritage (Mignolo 2009). work in Iraq undeniably takes place within the In light of these phenomena, some schol- context of a violent conflict that is increasingly ars have expressed their concern about the privatized for the gain and profit of a military- extralegal conduct of PMSCs in a “Declara- industrial complex (Hamilakis 2009). Archaeol- tion on the Protection of Cultural Property in ogy and cultural heritage management in Iraq the Event of Armed Conflict” proposed to the are deeply inscribed into a network of power World Archaeological Congress (WAC) during that relies on the violation of human rights, in- its 2013 meeting in Jordan. The declaration cluding the exploitation of local labor by private urges both governments and private contrac- contractors. tors to make an effort “to ensure that the prin- Global privatized power | 121 ciples of international law in general, and such ized and privatized war. Under late capitalism, international law concerning cultural property power is no longer circumscribed geographi- protection in particular, are observed by such cally but distributed globally, absorbing any companies.”6 However, as long as archaeologists locale in which the corporate interests of pow- continue to rely on militarized power under the erful states and private businesses manifest (see guise of heritage protection, they simply cannot also Dussel 2000). In its various manifestations, claim distance from the targeted acts of violence it is precisely such global privatized power that that PMSCs perform on the ground, often with has produced the kind of local power vacuum the help of the very employees who also work that is now being filled by militant organizations for archaeological teams. like the self-proclaimed Islamic State and which With the formation of the self-proclaimed invites Western interventionist political strate- Islamic State and its recent advances through- gies back onto the global playing field. out Iraq and Syria, archaeologists have begun to voice concern over the protection of cultural heritage in the Middle East once more. This Acknowledgments time, however, the discussion focuses less on the damage and destruction of heritage sites. This article is based on a paper presented during The greater threat is located in the illicit trade the second Engaged Scholarship workshop at in antiquities, which, some scholars worry, Brown University in May 2014. Thanks are due could turn into “a source of funding for ter- to Ömür Harmanşah for inviting me to con- rorists” (Bahrani 2014). Archaeologists who tribute to the workshop as well as to Mayssun continue their work in Iraq are yet again faced Succarie, who discussed my paper, for creating with a tough question—whether to rely on the space for an honest and critical conversa- the US military or on private firms to provide tion about anthropology in conflict zones. I am security during their fieldwork. It may not be indebted to Andrew Epstein for fact checking long before they choose to renew or strengthen and editorial assistance; the better sections of their collaboration with PMSCs in the urgent this paper are owed to his discerning eye and defense of heritage. What this logic of urgency precise language. for heritage protection in the context of armed conflict eclipses, however, is how the collabora- Trained as an anthropologist, Maria Theresia tion with private companies fits perfectly within Starzmann studies how capitalism and colo- the parameters of a military-capitalist matrix. nialism structure archaeological knowledge The unquestioned reliance on private military production. In her scholarly work, she is dedi- contractors has contributed considerably to the cated to a critical analysis of the history and creation of the kind of disrupted post-conflict practice of archaeology and its underlying so- landscape we see in Iraq today and which con- cial epistemologies. She is currently assistant stitutes the context for contemporary archaeo- professor of anthropology at McGill University. logical work in the region. Email: [email protected] The outcomes of this work are politically far- reaching. As transnational corporations extend their reach into Iraq, global processes take local life hostage (see also Flusty 2004). This means Notes that even if archaeologists find themselves col- 1. Unless indicated otherwise, quotations are laborating with organizations that are seem- taken from a series of semistructured telephone ingly fully localized—as the presence of “Iraqi” and email interviews I conducted with ten ar- security companies might suggest—they are chaeologists based in the United States, the never situated outside the grasp of a global- United Kingdom, and Germany, including one 122 | Maria Theresia Starzmann

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