Syracuse University SURFACE Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Political Science - Dissertations Affairs 12-2012 The Risks of Outsourcing Security: Foreign Security Forces in United States National Security Policy Eric Rittinger Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/psc_etd Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Rittinger, Eric, "The Risks of Outsourcing Security: Foreign Security Forces in United States National Security Policy" (2012). Political Science - Dissertations. 112. https://surface.syr.edu/psc_etd/112 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science - Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract This study combines insights from international relations, diplomatic history, and civil- military relations to improve our understanding of the tenuous arrangement between the United States and its foreign military proxies. For over a century, the U.S. has armed and trained these proxies to assume responsibilities that its own military might otherwise have to bear. But throughout that time, critics have doubted whether the U.S. could or should delegate sensitive security responsibilities to “dubious” foreign soldiers. Such doubt highlights an international analog to the principal-agent problem normally associated with domestic civil-military relations. I examine why this international principal-agent problem arose, how it has evolved over the past century, and how this evolution has shifted the U.S.’s approach to bringing its foreign agents in line with its strategic objectives.