Contractors on the Battlefield And Our Professional Military Ethic

The Vice Admiral James B. Stock- dale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S Naval Academy recently held its annual McCain Conference. The conference's theme was a timely but often neglected topic in our think tanks and service-academy and ser- vice-school curriculums: "Ethics and Military Contractors: Examining the Public-Private Partnership." Three of the featured speakers were MG Eric Olson, U.S. Army retired, former com- manding general of the 25th Infantry Division (Light); Erik Prince, former CEO of Blackwater; and James Jay Carafano, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. Each of these speakers highlighted the benefits as well as pitfalls of relying on civilian …