Private military company
A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a
The services and expertise offered by PMCs are typically similar to those of governmental
The services of private contractors are used around the world. P. W. Singer, the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, stated, "In geographic terms, it operates in over 50 countries. It's operated in every single continent but Antarctica."[citation needed] Singer noted that in the 1990s, there were 50 military personnel for every contractor and that the ratio is now 10 to 1.[when?] He also pointed out that the contractors have a number of duties, depending on who hires them.[citation needed] In developing countries that have natural resources, such as oil refineries in Iraq, they are hired to guard the area. They are hired also to guard companies that contract services and reconstruction efforts such as General Electric.
Apart from securing companies, they secure officials and government affiliates. Private military companies carry out many missions and jobs. Some examples have included
According to a 2008 study by the
History
Cold War
Modern PMCs trace their origins back to a group of ex-SAS veterans in 1965 who, under the leadership of the founder of the SAS, David Stirling and John Woodhouse, founded WatchGuard International (formerly with offices in Sloane Street before moving to South Audley Street in Mayfair) as a private company that could be contracted out for security and military purposes.[6]
The company's first assignment was to go to Yemen to report on the state of the royalist forces when a cease-fire was declared. At the same time Stirling was cultivating his contacts in the Iranian government and exploring the chances of obtaining work in Africa. The company eventually operated in Zambia and in Sierra Leone, providing training teams and advising on security matters. Stirling also organised deals to sell weapons and military personnel to other countries for various privatised foreign policy operations. Contracts were mainly with the Gulf States and involved weapons supply and training. The company was also linked with a failed attempt to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya in 1971. Woodhouse resigned as Director of Operations after a series of disagreements and Stirling himself ceased to take an active part in 1972.[7]
Stirling also founded KAS International (aka KAS Enterprises) and was involved in a collaboration with the
UN Mercenary Convention
In 1989
Post Cold War
Dramatic growth in the number and size of PMCs occurred at the end of the Cold War. The exodus of over 6 million military personnel from Western militaries in the 1990s expanded the recruiting pool for PMCs. Some of the larger corporations were: Vinnell and Military Professional Resources Inc. in the United States; G4S and Keeni-Meeny Services in the United Kingdom; Lordan-Levdan in Israel and Executive Outcomes in South Africa.
Some commentators have argued that there was an exodus from many
The Center for Public Integrity reported that since 1994, the Defense Department entered into 3,601 contracts worth $300 billion with twelve U.S.-based PMCs, specifically during the initial response after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.[citation needed]
Domestic operations are generally under the auspice of state or federal agencies such as the
The October 2000
Seaborne PMCs
Since the late 2000s, PMCs have become increasingly involved in anti-piracy measures in Somalia and other regions. PMCs remain active in this region, mainly providing security for private shipping through the Gulf of Aden and at times contracting to aid UN efforts. PMCs were hired to deter pirates from attacking vessels and taking the shipping crew and their transport hostage. While a large variety of international naval missions with the same goals such as the EU's Atalanta, NATO's Ocean Shield, and Combined Task Force 150 are and were active in this region, it is still necessary for the shipping companies to have security personnel on deck. Due to their decentralized nature, it can be difficult for the UN or other international organizations to provide effective oversight over what happens on the seas. Whereas the UN showed that between 2010 and 2015 there were over fifty encounters between the national sovereign navies that participated in the missions, resulting in over 1,200 detained pirates, only one PMC published information over this period.[16] Since the PMCs are so much more active in this area, covering a larger part of it through activities on board trading ships, this could be a low estimate.[17] PMC presence in Somalia is an example of two violent non-state actors at sea engaged in combat with each other.
Airborne PMCs (2005)
On April 5, 2005, Jamie Smith, CEO of
2007 Uniform Code of Military Justice amendment
In 2007, the American
International Code of Conduct (2008)
In 2008, the
NGO use of PMCs
As revealed in 2009 by Stoddard et al., the use of private security contractors by
Contracted for | international | local |
---|---|---|
Unarmed guards for facilities/residences/project sites | 29% | 77% |
Physical security for premises | 31% | 55% |
Security management consulting | 37% | 9% |
Security training for staff | 41% | 4% |
Risk assessment/threat analysis | 36% | 7% |
Information services | 26% | 12% |
Armed guards for facilities/residences/project sites | 17% | 14% |
Standby security | 13% | 16% |
Mobile escorts (armed) | 9% | 13% |
However, it has been argued that outsourcing security leaves NGOs reliant on contractors and unable to develop their own security thinking and make their own decisions. Perceived association of PSPs with state security, police or military services in turn compromises the ability of NGOs to claim neutrality, leading to increased risk. Moreover, outsourcing may not necessarily lead to lower costs, and the cost of middlemen may result in more poorly paid and poorly trained personnel, who turn over frequently and cannot adequately perform the job. Finally, NGOs have obligations beyond strictly legal liability that include political, ethical and reputational implications: If the organisation's responsibility to prevent and mitigate any possible negative outcomes is better achieved through in-house security, it is argued, this should be their choice.[20]
The result is that many NGOs are not open about their use of PSPs and researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have found that sometimes statements at NGOs central headquarters contradict those given by local staff.[20] This prevents informative knowledge sharing and debate on the subject needed to improve NGO decisions regarding this issue, though there have been some notable exceptions; namely, the Afghanistan NGO Security Office and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq m.[20]
The private security contractor fulfills many different needs in the private and public sectors. While some nations rely heavily on the input of governments of such nations as the United States, other countries do not trust the U.S., so they tend to look for private contractors who will have a
ISO for PMSC (2012)
In 2012 were published the
Activities elsewhere
Afghanistan
- In December 2009, the Congressional Research Service, which provides background information to members of the United States Congress, announced that the deployment of 30,000 extra US troops into Afghanistan could be accompanied by a surge of "26,000 to 56,000" contractors. This would expand the presence of personnel from the US private sector in Afghanistan "to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000." The CRS study said that contractors made up 69 percent of the Pentagon's personnel in Afghanistan in December 2008, a proportion that "apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by the Defense Department in any conflict in the history of the United States." In September 2008 their presence had dropped to 62 percent, and the US military troop strength increased modestly.[22][23][24]
- Also in December 2009, a Bagram air base) to more than 100 forward operating bases and other military facilities in the country.[25]
Africa
- In 1994 and 1995, the South African-based PMC Executive Outcomes was involved in two military actions in Africa. In the first conflict, Executive Outcomes fought on behalf of the Angolan government against UNITA after a UN-brokered peace settlement broke down. In the second action, Executive Outcomes was tasked with containing a guerrilla movement in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front. Both missions involved personnel from the firm training four to five thousand combat personnel for the Angolan government and retaking control of the diamond fields and forming a negotiated peace in Sierra Leone.
- In 2000,
- In mid-May 2006, police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrested 32 alleged mercenaries of different nationalities; 19 from South Africa, 10 from Nigeria and three from the United States. Half of them worked for the South African company Omega Security Solutions, and the Americans worked for AQMI Strategy Corp. The men were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, but charges were not pressed. The men were deported to their home countries.[28][29]
- Due to strain of United States Armed Forces, the U.S. State Department and The Pentagon has also outsourced the expanded military training in Africa to three companies: Military Professional Resources Inc., DFI International, and Logicon (now owned by Northrop Grumman).[30]
- In 2015,
- The Central African-based park-ranger organization African Wildlife Defence Force contracts former servicemen and law enforcement personnel to protect national parks and private game ranches in Africa. Candidates must undergo additional retraining to become park rangers. They are also referred to as Private Ranger Contractors or PRC.[citation needed]
- According to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), since 2017, the Russian-based PMC, Wagner Group, has been operating continuously in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, as well as in other African countries. Under the guise of helping government's defeat violent insurgencies or fight Islamic extremist movements, the Russian Wagner Group is believed by several U.S. and African government sources, to be responsible for significant crimes against humanity. It is report that hundreds of contractors from the Russian PMC enter these countries each year. The Wagner Group has been accused of extreme violence against African civilians and human rights violations by the U.S. State Department and most European governments.[34]
- According to the Washington Post, the South African PMC, Executive Outcomes (Founded in 1989), was committing atrocities in Sierra Leone up until the early 2000s, when they left the country and refocused their business on providing domestic security services in their native South Africa.[35][36]
- In the mid-2000s, a group of self-proclaimed former ANC freedom-fighters, known as the TRAKboys, began to emerge in fringe political circles within Johannesburg and Cape Town. They gained national attention in South Africa when they began calling upon leaders to demand an investigation by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development into the foreign and domestic activities of Executive Outcomes. Failed assassination attempts on several high profile members of the TRAKboys, such as former Cape Town-based manufacturing tycoon, Dylan4K, have led to speculation, conspiracy theories and public outrage directed towards Apartheid-era, Afrikaner-owned PMC's operating in southern Africa.[37][38][39][40]
Balkans
- In 1995, both Croatia and Bosnia hired Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) to equip, train, and professionalize their armed forces.[30]
- In 1999, an incident involving DynCorp in Bosnia was followed by a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit being filed against DynCorp employees stationed in Bosnia. It alleged that "employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior and were illegally purchasing women, weapons, forged passports and participating in other immoral acts."
Iraq
In December 2006, there were estimated to be at least 100,000 contractors working directly for the
On 5 December 2005 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld justified the use of PMCs in Iraq on the basis that they were cost effective and useful on the ground. He also affirmed that they were not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.[42]
Two days before he left Iraq,
In 2007, the
After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the U.S. State Department is reportedly planning to more than double the number of its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress. Its helicopter fleet, which will be piloted by contractors, will grow from 17 to 29.[45]
PMCs supplied support to U.S. military bases throughout the Persian Gulf, from operating mess halls to providing security. They supplied armed guards at a U.S. Army base in Qatar, and they used live ammunition to train soldiers at Camp Doha in Kuwait. They maintained an array of weapons systems vital to the invasion of Iraq. They also provided bodyguards for VIPs, guard installations, and escort supply convoys from Kuwait. All these resources were called upon constantly.[4]
In 2010, several
List of defective occurrences
- Employees of private military company
- On March 31, 2004, four American private contractors belonging to the company Operation Vigilant Resolve)
- On March 28, 2005, 16 American contractors and three Iraqi aides from Zapata Engineering, under contract to the US Army Corps of Engineers to manage an ammunition storage depot, were detained following two incidents in which they allegedly fired upon U.S. Marinecheckpoint. While later released, the contractors have levied complaints of mistreatment against the Marines who detained them.
- On June 5, 2005, Colonel Theodore S. Westhusing committed suicide, after writing a report exonerating US Investigations Services of allegations of fraud, waste and abuse he received in an anonymous letter in May.
- On October 27, 2005, a "trophy" video, complete with post-production Elvis Presley music, appearing to show private military contractors in Baghdad shooting Iraqi civilians sparked two investigations after it was posted on the Internet.[48][49][50] The video has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services. According to the posters, the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for six years. After the incident the regional director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. State Department each conducted a formal inquiry into the issue. The Army determined that there was no "probable cause to believe that a crime was committed."[51]
- On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was revoking the license of the American security firm Blackwater USA over the firm's involvement in the deaths of seventeen Iraqis in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.[52][53] The company was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement took effect. Blackwater was one of the most high-profile firms operating in Iraq, with around 1,000 employees as well as a fleet of helicopters in the country. In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court over the incident; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges.[54]
- On March 12, 2017, Sallyport Global fired two investigators who alleged sex trafficking, alcohol smuggling, and security lapses by Sallyport employees at Balad Air Base in Iraq.[55]
Middle East
- On March 27, 2006, low intensity conflicts. According to Black, "There is clear potential to conduct security operations at a fraction of the cost of NATO operations." Those comments were later denied.[56]
Latin America
- In 2006, a US congressional report listed a number of PMCs and other enterprises that have signed contracts to carry out anti-narcotics operations and related activities as part of Plan Colombia. DynCorp was among those contracted by the State Department, and others signed contracts with the Defense Department. Other companies from different countries, including Israel, have also signed contracts with the Colombian Defense Ministry to carry out security or military activities.[3]
Ukraine
The Russian
Yemen
- Since 2015, the Yemeni Civil War.[62]
China
- Contractors from the Hong Kong-incorporated Frontier Services Group (FSG) like Erik Prince have established close ties with Chinese state-owned firms since 2014 by providing security, logistics, and aviation for Chinese companies in dozens of countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe in connection with China's Belt and Road Initiative.[46]
- In November 2018, FSG or its founder, incorporated a subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with "a mandate to extract minerals and timber and conduct financial operations."[46]
- FSG is favoured by CITIC,[46] as of 2019 China's premier state-owned enterprise,[63] with one of the largest pools of foreign assets in the world.[64]
- In February 2019, FSG signed a preliminary deal with the Chinese government to establish a training base in Kashgar, Xinjiang.[65]
Russia
The
The existence of Russian PMCs seems to go as far back as 2011, when the
In 2012 Vladimir Putin suggested to the State Duma to consider the legalization of PMCs,[69] although owners of Russian PMCs have claimed that because Russia inherited its legal system from the Byzantine Empire, anything that is not explicitly prohibited is allowed.[70][71]
The Syrian gains of
Two recruiters for the Slavonic Corps were ultimately jailed in October 2014 for their violation of Article 359. They faced up to eight years imprisonment but were convicted for three. Regular squad members were reportedly unpaid and faced no prosecution in Russia.[69]
Not long after the Slavonic Corps fiasco, the Wagner Group PMC made its appearance on the scene.[68] Near the end of 2014, Wagner was given the instructional role of local Basharite militias.[68] Prior to September 2015, the PMCs were Russia's only pseudo-military presence in Syria.[68]
Wagner and Moran both contributed in 2014 to the Russian
In January 2018, Foreign Minister
In February 2023 it was reported that Gazprom would form a PMC of its own, called Fakel. The law "On the Security of Fuel and Energy Facilities" appears now to state that companies in this field "may be granted the right to establish a private security organisation".[74]
The organisation Molfar has investigated 37 private military companies in Russia, and found that all of them are or have been connected to Kremlin. Most of them are also funded by Kremlin. More than half of them are participating in the
Other miscellany
Employer | Subsidiaries | Fatalities |
---|---|---|
L3 Communications
|
Titan Corporation, MPRI | 373 |
The Supreme Group | Supreme Food Services | 241 |
Compass Security | 163 | |
Service Employees International | 127 | |
DynCorp | DynCorp Technical Services | 101 |
AEGIS | Aegis Defense Service, Mission Essential Personnel |
89 |
Fatalities
By the end of 2012, the number of contractors who had died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait had reached 3,000. Scholars have studied whether contractor deaths have an effect on the public's "casualty sensitivity" when substituted for military fatalities.[76] Casualty sensitivity refers to the inverse relationship between military deaths and public support for a sustained military engagement. Contractor deaths may account for nearly 30% of total US battlefield losses since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[77]
UN mercenary report
In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that reported that, although hired as "security guards", private contractors performed military duties. A spokesman for the American mission to the U.N. office in Geneva (UNOG) said that "Accusations that U.S. government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries is inaccurate."[78] An observer noted that the difficulty in separating private from public troops means that legal proceedings against these violent non-state actors can be complicated, and stated that contracted combatants carry the legitimacy of the state that hires them.[79]
Demands for specific PSC services have grown to record levels in recent decades, and private firm's capabilities now include an array of services that are vital to the success of on-the-ground war fighting as well as other more traditional stability operations and contingency contracting. While past calls for corporate responsibility have heralded successes such as the
standards.ASIS Commission on Standards
Founded in 1955,
Cultural references
Films and television
In Marvel Television's The Punisher on Netflix, a PMC by the name of "ANVIL" is heavily featured. ANVIL's founder, Billy Russo, being one of the primary antagonists of the series. Much like real PMCs, ANVIL provides training spaces for U.S. forces on American and foreign soil.[82]
Video games
Depictions of PMCs have become commonplace in video games, often as factions involved in the plot, or as antagonists to the player. PMCs have been featured in
See also
- List of private military contractors
- List of private security companies
- Private police
- Company police
- Private army
- Command responsibility
- Condottieri
- Defense contractor
- Law of war
- LOGCAP
- Mercenary
- Military–industrial complex
- MultiCam
- Personal Security Detachment
- Private defense agency
- Private intelligence agency
- Private security company
- Privateer
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{{cite magazine}}
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{{cite journal}}
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Academic publications
- Arnold, Guy. Mercenaries: The Scourge of the Third World. ISBN 978-0-312-22203-1
- Deborah D. Avant. The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security. George Washington University, August 2005. ISBN 0-521-61535-6
- Deborah D. Avant and Kara Kingma Neu. 2019. "The Private Security Events Database." Journal of Conflict Resolution.
- Brillstein, Arik: Antiterrorsystem. Engel Publishing 2005
- Brooks, Doug/ Rathgeber, Shawn Lee: The Industry Role in Regulating Private Security Companies, in: Canadian Consortium on Human Security - Security Privatization: Challenges and Opportunities, Vol. 6.3, University of British Columbia, March 2008.
- Simon Chesterman & Chia Lehnardt, eds. From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009.
- Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince. 1532. See ch. 12.
- Amy E. Eckert, Outsourcing War: The Just War Tradition in the Age of Military Privatization, Cornell University Press, 2016.
- Robert Mandel. Armies Without States: The Privatization of Security. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002.
- Phelps, Martha Lizabeth (2014). "Doppelgangers of the State: Private Security and Transferable Legitimacy". Politics & Policy. 42 (6): 824–849. .
- Fred Schreier & Marina Caparini. "Privatising Security: Law, Practice and Governance of Private Military and Security Companies", DCAF Occasional Paper 6, The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, March 2005.
- Filipa Guinote. "Private Military Firms and the State: Sharing Responsibility for Violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law", Collection Ricerche, "Series E.MA Awarded thesis", vol. 7, Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2006.
- David Shearer. Private Armies and Military Intervention, April 1998. ISBN 0-19-829440-9
- ISBN 0-8014-8915-6
- Stephan Maninger. "Soldiers of Misfortune – Is the Demise of National Armies a Core Contributing Factor in the Rise of Private Security Companies?", Private Security and Military Companies: Chances, Problems, Pitfalls and Prospects, eds. Gerhard Kümmel & Thomas Jäger. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007. ISBN 978-3-531-14901-1
- Hin-Yan Liu. "Leashing the Corporate Dogs of War: The Legal Implications of the Modern Private Military Company", Journal of Conflict and Security Law 15(1) 2010: 141–168.
- Woolley, Peter J. "Soldiers of Fortune," The Common Review, v. 5, no. 4 (2007), pp. 46–48.
- Petrovic Predrag, Milosevic Marko, Unijat Jelena & Stojanovic Sonja. Private Security Companies – a Friend or a foe? [1]. Centre for Civil-Military Relations, 2008. ISBN 978-86-83543-51-9
Non-academic publications
- Making A Killing, James Ashcroft. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-311-9
- Licensed to Kill : Privatizing the War on Terror, Robert Young Pelton ISBN 1-4000-9781-9
- Three Worlds Gone Mad: Dangerous Journeys through the War Zones of Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific, Robert Young Pelton, August 2006. ISBN 1-59228-100-1
- An Unorthodox Soldier, Tim Spicer, September 2000. ISBN 1-84018-349-7
- Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Jeremy Scahill, Nation Books. February 2007. ISBN 978-1-56025-979-4
- Contractor, Giampiero Spinelli Mursia Editore 2009 ISBN 978-88-425-4390-9
- Guns For Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering, Tony Geraghty, Portrait. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7499-5145-0
- Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Legal Issues, Jennifer K. Elsea, Congressional Research Service, January 7, 2010
- Irak, terre mercenaire : les armées privées remplacent les troupes américaines [Iraq, mercenary land: private armies replace US troops], by Georges-Henri Bricet des Vallons, Favre (Lausanne:Switzerland), January 2010. ISBN 978-2-8289-1095-2. Only in French.
- Dirty Deeds Done Cheap: The Incredible Story of My Life from the SBS to a Hired Gun in Iraq, by Mike Mercer, John Blake. 2009. ISBN 978-1-84454-765-4