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Dawn Of The Intercontinental Sniper: The Drone's Cascading Contribution To The Modern Battlefield's Complexity: A Re-View Essay Of Predator: The Secret Origins Of The Drone Revolution, By Richard Whittle, Steven L. Schooner, Nathaniel E. Castellano

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This review essay discusses a unique book that chronicles the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or "drone" revolution with a focus on the Predator weapon system. Although brought to market by a mainstream publisher, the book offers a thought-provoking, heavily researched, non-fiction case study involving national security, defense acquisition, and international law. We congratulate author Richard Whittle for crafting a thrilling and highly informative history of technological innovation, government contracting, and weapons system development and deployment, while introducing complex issues of national security and international law, that nonetheless left us eagerly anticipating a forthcoming action movie.

This review essay introduces prospective …

Dead Contractors: The Un-Examined Effect Of Surrogates On The Public’S Casualty Sensitivity, Steven L. Schooner, Collin D. Swan

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Once the nation commits to engage in heavy, sustained military action abroad, particularly including the deployment of ground forces, political support is scrupulously observed and dissected. One of the most graphic factors influencing that support is the number of military soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice on the nation’s behalf. In the modern era, most studies suggest that the public considers the potential and actual casualties in U.S. wars to be an important factor, and an inverse relationship exists between the number of military deaths and public support. Economists have dubbed this the "casualty sensitivity" effect.

This article asserts …

Emerging Policy And Practice Issues (2008), Steven L. Schooner, David J. Berteau

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2008), attempts to identify the key trends and issues for 2009 in U.S. federal procurement. In large part, the paper focuses upon the challenges facing the incoming Obama administration, which faces a number of interrelated, critical, systemic challenges that pervade the acquisition landscape. Federal procurement spending has exploded in this decade. As a result - and, in addition to decisions made during the 1990's - the Government is heavily outsourced, dependent upon contractors to an extent - in degree and in type - that makes many uncomfortable. …

Emerging Policy And Practice Issues (2007), Steven L. Schooner, Danielle M. Conway

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2007), attempts to identify the key trends and issues for 2008 in U.S. federal procurement. We bemoan the absence of attention to significant issues by the current Presidential candidates, critique the leadership vacuum that sustains the longstanding and increasingly critical acquisition workforce shortage, and discuss the potentially active legislative agenda in light of the now-Final Report of the Acquisition Advisory Panel (AAP), a blue-ribbon commission mandated by Section 1423 of the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA). We also discuss the dramatic post-2000 trend in increased federal procurement …

Contractor Atrocities At Abu Ghraib: Compromised Accountability In A Streamlined, Outsourced Government, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Staggering numbers of contractor personnel have supported, and continue to support, American combat and peace-keeping troops and the government's Herculean reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Yet recent experiences in Iraq, particularly allegations that contractor personnel were involved in inappropriate and potentially illegal activities at the Abu Ghraib prison, expose numerous areas of concern with regard to the current state of federal public procurement. Sadly, because these incidents coincide with a series of procurement scandals, the likes of which the government has not experienced since the late 1980's, they cannot be dismissed so easily as anomalies.

The Abu Ghraib abuses suggest at …