The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of terrorist attacks.

Chapter 14 is about the transformation of the American security and military apparatus in the lead up to, and during, the Iraq War and the War on Terror more generally. The chapter opens with a description of Donald Rumsfeld, a key actor in this transformation. Rumsfeld was defense secretary during the Ford administration. He then went on to a series of positions on corporate boards. 

In 2001, Rumsfeld joined the George W. Bush administration as defense secretary. On September 10th, 2001, Rumsfeld announced he would be dismantling the Pentagon’s bureaucracy as part of a larger project of privatizing and corporatizing the US military.

Cheney and Rumsfeld: Proto-Disaster Capitalists

Prior to the Bush administration, the US government had already contracted out many services to private contractors. Only core functions of the state remained to be privatized. Rumsfeld, a close friend and ally of Milton Friedman, wanted to aggressively pursue privatizing remaining services. 

Dick Cheney, Bush’s vice president, shared in this vision. Rumsfeld was a former chairman of Gilead Sciences, a company that produces Tamiflu, an antiviral. Cheney was a former “boss” at Halliburton, a military contractor, oil company, and consulting firm.