Money as a “weapons system” and the entrepreneurial way of war

In US counterinsurgency doctrine, money has been characterized as "ammunition" and as a "weapons system". Money is being wielded to win over the "hearts and minds" of the population, and to protect the lives of the occupying forces. Soldiers are taking on greater responsibility for spending money on reconstruction and development projects on the battlefield. Billions of dollars have been spent by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan on a wide range of projects including building schools, developing infrastructure, and providing agricultural assistance as well as microfinance. But military doctrine now extends to helping implement free-market economies, supporting business creation, setting up banking facilities, and promoting entrepreneurialism. In fact, economic development has been recast as a constitutive form of combat, not simply as a supplement to conventional warfare, or as part of post-conflict reconstruction. The use of money as a "weapons system" speaks to both a different kind of military and a different kind of war. Fighting and violence have not been replaced or even displaced, but are joined with new strategies and tactics that sit uneasily side by side. As soldiers have been retooled to be economic decision-makers, we need to better understand how money and markets are increasingly both the weapon of military intervention and the anticipated outcome.