Private Military Companies: The fatal armies E-Book

Daniel B. Smith

• Herausgeber: Daniel B. Smith
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The need for security expressed by various actors has resulted in both the private military companies and private security companies. I consider those actors being very important in the overall design of the security, taking into account their capabilities, and the ability to act in contexts ranging from high-level to the individual level. The totality of private security actors, from a private military company that produces next-generation weapons to be used by a national army, to a private detective, influences the global security, regional security, national, local and individual security.

Leseprobe

Private Military Companies:

The fatal armies

Daniel B. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, excepting the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Roots of Private Military Contractors

Chapter 2: General aspects regarding private military companies

Chapter 3: Typology of Private Military Companies

Chapter 4: Interaction of Private Military Companies

Chapter 5: Critics regarding the missions of private military companies

Chapter 6: Advantages and disadvantages of contracting private military companies

Chapter 7: Regulation of the activities of private military companies

Conclusion

Introduction

The need for security expressed by various actors has resulted in both the private military companies and the private security companies. I consider these actors being very important in the overall design of the security, taking into account their capabilities, and the ability to act in contexts ranging from high-level to the individual level. The totality of private security actors, from a private military company that produces next-generation weapons to be used by a national army, to a private detective, influences the global security, regional security, national, local and individual security.

I think the missions of this new and powerful actors is required to be regulated to establish the boundaries of democratic conduct of specific activities and to protect citizens from potential abuses. If some companies are directly involved in helping civil society through various campaigns, this can't go unnoticed. In the current security architecture, the prospects of these companies are important, especially how short and medium term mobilization of resources to meet the security needs of customers, but also the process of strengthening its position on the global market segment and national security.

I chose this topic because private security field immediately caught my attention and made me take an in-depth study to capture the multitude of connections that are established in the emergence of these actors. I focused my attention to elements such as the origin of these companies, the services they can provide, the different criteria for classification, impact on civil society, the legal framework regulating the activity of entities seeking these services, the capabilities of the largest private security firms, existence criticism of companies and contributing to strengthening security status. The primary goal of the study is to expose the international and national developments of private companies that provide security, from historical roots to the present. To achieve this, all the defining elements that provides a thorough understanding of the private security market dynamics should be highlighted as issues under study. The study tried to be focused on the following key factors:

Legislative limits regarding private military companies and their activity;

Finding the historical roots of private military companies;

Highlighting the typology and the connections of private military companies;

The impact of contracting these companies by exposing the multitude of advantages, disadvantages and the role of private security in society;

Capturing the most serious incidents and criticism regarding the activity of private military companies;

Analysis of private security international market, in order to identify key actors in the private security field ;

Comparative analysis between a private security specialist and one of national security of a N.A.T.O. member state, in order to reveal professional profiles;

Prospects for the development of specialized companies.

Chapter 1: The Roots of Private Military Contractors

Differences of opinion have always existed and will continue to exist due optics and different perceptions of the same event by different people, the level of culture and knowledge. Those disputes that fail to be solved through a negotiation process which ended with a win-win situation, escalates into a state of conflict, latent at first, followed by a manifest state, the war. Before the war, mercenaries have a new opportunity to make a living by participating in the confrontation but also one willing to become a payed fighter can choose mercenary activities.

Completion of conflict is leaving behind, besides property damage and loss of life, a category of professional fighters different of those belonging to the national armies of the states, hardened by war and experienced soldiers looking for their next assignment: mercenaries.

Regarding the semantics of the word "mercenary", it's defined as:

"Payed military employee in a foreign army" or "One who fights only for money, no matter the enemy is".

"Professional soldier committed to fighting any state or nation without interests or conerns about political problems".

"Professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army".

However, these definitions are incomplete in the context of studied issues, the phenomenon being complex and dynamic, difficult to accurately be framed in international law, but these will be highlighted in another chapter.

The best known definition used because of legal power that emanates, is found in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Article 47 by two paragraphs define and regulate mercenary status as follows:

„Paragraph 1. A mercenary is not entitled to combatant or prisoner of war status.Paragraph 2. A mercenary is any person who: a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict; b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities; c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party; d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict; e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, and f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.” - Geneva Convention

To assign the term "mercenary" to a person, it must be within the cumulative provisions of paragraph 2, which is quite difficult considering the practices of private security companies contracted personnel to fit the armed forces of a Party under conflict, without this staff to have another interest besides the material one. Different examples given below will be relevant to this issue, this profession being framed by specialists among the oldest in human history.

Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, entered into force as of 12.07.1978 although it was adopted on 08.06.1977. Protocol is ratified by 174 states now; yet these countries are divided into two categories as some have ratified in its original form (135 countries), while others have made changes (39 states). A very important aspect is that Iran, Pakistan and the United States have signed the protocol on 12.12.1997 but none of those states ratified it. Therefore, in the absence of ratification, the adopted Protocol has no legal force in the States mentioned.

Mercenaries offer their military experience to meet the needs of certain political factions, states, private entities, international organizations, under legal activity or not, in exchange for financial remuneration. According to the principles of market economy, people have needs and to respond to their, mercenaries come in varying degrees of usefulness. The mercenaries offers their services only for personal gain; they will not fight for a particular purpose or political belief, the only variable that matters is the remuneration for services rendered.

The profession of mercenary ranks among the top positions of the oldest professions in the world. The preceding state armies at one time during their existence, were supported by mercenaries. Leaders or kings empires, often called mercenaries services in times of military necessity to increase military forces. However, to be able to talk about mercenary, there must be some preconditions: there's war or outbreak perspective, a person or group willing to pay a foreigner to satisfy their internal security and the future of a mercenary who is willing to take the risk to participate in a situation that does not mean anything to him, apart from material gain.