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Recently, militarism has taken a new form.  In addition to or in place of a direct presence of US troops, private security firms and trans-national corporations producing military equipment take on the militarist role.

Private security firms are essentially mercenaries who offer services to spare western governments the political cost of incurring too many casualties. While they are often based in western cities, many of their employees come from so-called Third World countries. For all involved, it’s much safer this way, for when Asian, African or Arab security personnel are wounded or killed on duty, the matter tends to register, if ever, as a mere news item, with little political consequence, Senate hearings or government enquiries.

The region like the Sahara is also important for the potential natural resources and the US military presence serves to protect the transnational corporations which are or will be operating in the region and to enable them safe passage.   With possession of the Pacific and the islands on the west and the Atlantic with Africa  and the Caribbean particularly Haiti which is essentially occupied by the US, on the east – the US, like the Conquistadores will have consolidated it’s global reach far beyond any other nation.  The popular narratives of  ”African countries” and more recently “Haiti” being ‘open for business’ serve to hide US militarism and expand the exploitation of US corporations.  It also serves to hide the real reason for the forced removal of the urban poor from cities like Lagos and Port-au-Prince which in turn  is tied to the increased surveillance and militarization of cities in the global south and the west.

How should the United States respond to the threat of ungoverned spaces in Yemen and beyond? Two priorities seem clear. One is to devote more attention to analyzing--and then undermining--the solidarity that terrorist groups enjoy with local power-wielders and societies in areas outside of state control. This demands much deeper intelligence capabilities than the United States currently possesses. The other, related goal is to encourage weak state governments to deliver more public goods to territories where they currently have only a marginal presence.

hile such aid is critical, it must be complemented by governance and development assistance to help build effective, durable, and accountable institutions, and to give local populations a stake in a broader community. Given the distrust many tribal groups feel toward the central government--which they often regard as distant and corrupt--such "state-building" projects will be more effective if they are designed and implemented by local authorities, who can be held to account for the results.