About War Is Business

• What is War Is Business?

WarIsBusiness.com is a startup news site covering military contracting and the global arms trade. The basic idea is Rolling Stone guest-edits Jane’s Defence Weekly, without the high subscription fees or problematic dependence on certain corporate advertisers.

• Why call it that?

W.I.B. begins with two assumptions.

The first: A lot of people are making money from war, while enjoying the comforts of anonymity. Such people were once plainly called profiteers.

The second: Privatizing war inevitably prolongs it, creating what economists call a “perverse incentive.” Those who profit from conflict stand to gain the longer it drags on.

• Who is behind this?

Anyone can contribute to W.I.B.’s research. Scores already have, through a beta version of our DIY investigations form and by editing our company dossiers.

W.I.B. was conceived and is chiefly edited by Corey Pein, an award-winning investigative journalist who has worked on staff at Columbia Journalism Review, Willamette Week, the Santa Fe Reporter and IHT ThaiDay, and contributed to Salon, Slate, The American Prospect, CounterPunch and BBC/PRI’s The World, among other places. Read some of his work at pinecore.com, and follow him on Twitter @coreypein.

W.I.B.’s advisory board includes:

Tim Shorrock, the investigative journalist and author of Spies for Hire: Inside the Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing; Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Nigel Jaquiss; historian Nick Turse, editor of The Case for Withdrawal From Afghanistan and author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives; Harvard-trained management consultant David Breecker; and, Gong Szeto, entrepreneur and designer.