LAUSR

mir, Chhattisgarh, Chechnya, and Turkish Kurdistan— are hardly poster children of peace” (p. 163). Defining policy success is surely a thorny problem. Yet given the selection issue and the principal’s military goal of defeating insurgents, four out of five wins seems pretty good odds in a gamble with violence. Biberman’s definition of success or victory, complete with peace and legitimacy, would be a high bar for conventional forces. The success of outsourcing is evaluated by the goals of the principal, but what Biberman’s work intimates is that may not be good enough for the rest of us. Armed nonstate actors, as their names suggest, are likely predators. How do we weigh, or better control, the human costs of this dark menagerie?