Force For Hire

This week on Force for Hire, we bring aboard a pair of experts to examine an aspect of military contracting that ties into issues of human rights abuses and modern-day slavery.  Third-country nationals, workers not employed by a company headquartered in their home country and operating in a country outside of their native lands, are often part of the contracted workforce supporting the Department of Defense. A 2019 U.S. Central Command report counts 24,000 third-country nationals among its workers.  But as researcher into modern slavery James Sinclair says the practice of hiring and subcontracting out a third-country national workforce has led to some massive human rights issues. Sinclair will talk about how shady and largely unregulated hiring practices can lead to what amounts to modern-day slavery.  Also joining us this week is Noah Coburn, author of “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War,” a book that examines a contracted workforce that is often ignored, exploited and forgotten ab