Podcasts about under contract the invisible workers

This week on Force for Hire, we bring aboard a pair of experts to examine an aspect of military contracting that ties into issues of human rights abuses and modern-day slavery.  Third-country nationals, workers not employed by a company headquartered in their home country and operating in a country outside of their native lands, are often part of the contracted workforce supporting the Department of Defense. A 2019 U.S. Central Command report counts 24,000 third-country nationals among its workers.  But as researcher into modern slavery James Sinclair says the practice of hiring and subcontracting out a third-country national workforce has led to some massive human rights issues. Sinclair will talk about how shady and largely unregulated hiring practices can lead to what amounts to modern-day slavery.  Also joining us this week is Noah Coburn, author of “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America's Global War,” a book that examines a contracted workforce that is often ignored, exploited and forgotten about.  Coburn discusses how security contractors in countries not known for their human rights records can be robbed of promised salary, arrested or worse – and what part defense contracting companies play in all of this. 

This week on Force for Hire, we bring aboard a pair of experts to examine an aspect of military contracting that ties into issues of human rights abuses and modern-day slavery.  Third-country nationals, workers not employed by a company headquartered in their home country and operating in a country outside of their native lands, are often part of the contracted workforce supporting the Department of Defense. A 2019 U.S. Central Command report counts 24,000 third-country nationals among its workers.  But as researcher into modern slavery James Sinclair says the practice of hiring and subcontracting out a third-country national workforce has led to some massive human rights issues. Sinclair will talk about how shady and largely unregulated hiring practices can lead to what amounts to modern-day slavery.  Also joining us this week is Noah Coburn, author of “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War,” a book that examines a contracted workforce that is often ignored, exploited and forgotten about.  Coburn discusses how security contractors in countries not known for their human rights records can be robbed of promised salary, arrested or worse – and what part defense contracting companies play in all of this. 

Noah Coburn's Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America's Global War (Stanford University Press, 2018) is about the hidden workers of American’s foreign wars: third country nationals who while not serving in their country’s militaries, still work to support the American war effort. These men and women serve as laborers, cooks, logisticians, engineers and security guards. They bear the burden of service in a war zone with the hopes of good pay, but are sometimes, maybe even often, disappointed. Prof Coburn explains in this book how they come to be in America’s wars, why they want to sign on a contract, how America’s government incentivizes and perpetuates the contracting system and what that means for the world both in the present and future. In our talk, we discussed how Prof. Coburn came to this project, his personal experience in Afghanistan, what it means to be a contractor and how contracts are established as well as what happens to these contractors when they no longer have America’s wars to fight. Jeffrey Bristol is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Boston University and a JD candidate at the University of Michigan Law School. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Political Anthropologist Dr. Noah Coburn discusses his latest book “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War” as we delve into the lives of over 3 million private contractors who service the logistics and underbelly of the Global War On Terror in Afghanistan. Show Notes Trump’s Disastrous Plan to Increase Contracting in Afghanistan https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/trumps-disastrous-plan-to-increase-contracting-in-afghanistan […]

Political Anthropologist Dr. Noah Coburn discusses his latest book “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War” as we delve into the lives of over 3 million private contractors who service the logistics and underbelly of the Global War On Terror in Afghanistan. Show Notes Trump’s Disastrous Plan to Increase Contracting in Afghanistan https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/trumps-disastrous-plan-to-increase-contracting-in-afghanistan […]