Creating Shortages of Human Assets

Michael Taillard

Chapter 3 in Economics and Modern Warfare, 2012, pp 49-55 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The most valuable resources of any organization are, without a doubt, its human resources. Even the most well-designed and well-funded organization cannot properly function without the proper types of people in proper quantities. Put simply, unless a militant group can, for the purposes of fighting or operating equipment, either recruit people themselves or outsource people from private companies, all combat operations will stop. The organization must have not only the proper number of people but they must also have the proper skill sets to perform necessary functions with enough quality to ensure that their efforts are useful to the mission. In contrast, a force that has skilled individuals dedicated to a cause, in having few supplies will find resourceful methods to continue to defend their cause. Mercenaries fighting for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, though with little capital with which to acquire combat supplies, have proven to be very resourceful in their strategies by using cheap, common supplies. Their ability to turn even broken objects and refuse into devastating weaponry such as IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and EFPs (Explosively Formed Penetrators) is evidence of a great level of skill and resourcefulness among combatants that have little besides skill and resourcefulness with which to fight.

Keywords: Human Resource; Economic Policy; Militant Group; Political Economy; International Relation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-28225-5_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137282255

DOI: 10.1057/9781137282255_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().