RESEARCH
Private Military Companies
Private Military Companies play an increasingly significant role in military affairs. Their emergence as important actors in armed conflicts and as security providers in unstable states raises questions about the role of the nation state as the primary military actor. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said when confronted with the need to separate fighters from refugees in the Rwandan refugee camps in Goma: “I even considered the possibility of engaging a private firm.”
Despite the increasing attention paid to commercial military and security providers by academic commentators, policy institutions, and the media, however, discussions are often characterized by the absence of consensus about basic aspects of the phenomenon in question. Participants point to two weaknesses in those discussions: (i) each tends to reinvent the wheel, but without coming to any conclusion beyond the positions the participants bring to the discussion; (ii) meetings typically include both too many perspectives, speaking past each other, and in particular too few practitioners.
This policy research project seeks to address these concerns.
Spring Meeting
As part of the policy component of the IILJ’s research project on the regulation of private military companies, on March 22-24, 2007, the IILJ held a workshop during which representatives from four groups - providers, consumers, regulators, and commentators - discussed the creation of a framework for governance of commercial military and security firms.
New Publications
Simon Chesterman and Chia Lehnardt,
From Mercenaries to Markets: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to security gaps, private military companies - commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support - play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. As they assume more responsibilities in conflict and post-conflict settings, their growing significance raises fundamental questions about their nature, their role in different regions and contexts, and their regulation.
This volume examines these issues with a focus on governance, in particular the interaction between regulation and market forces. It analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead. The book as a whole is organized around four sets of questions, which reflect the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?
Foreword - James O.C. Jonah
Introduction - Simon Chesterman & Chia Lehnardt
Part I: Concerns
1. Moralityand regulation — Sarah Percy
2. What should and what should not be regulated? — Kevin A. O’Brien
3. Regulating the role of private military companies in shaping security and politics — Anna Leander
Part II: Challenges
4. Weak governments in search of strength: Africa’s experience of mercenaries and private military companies — Angela McIntyre & Taya Weiss
5. A government in search of cover: private military companies in Iraq — David Isenberg
6. Transitional states in search of support: PMCs and security sector reform — Elke Krahmann
Part III: Norms
7. Private military companies under international humanitarian law — Louise Doswald-Beck
8. Private militarycompanies and state responsibility— Chia Lehnardt
9. Domestic regulation: licensing regimes for the export of militarygoods and services — Marina Caparini
Part IV: Markets
10. The emerging market for private military services and the problems of regulation — Deborah Avant
11. Make or buy? Principalagent theory and the regulation of private military companies — James Cockayne
12. Contract as a tool for regulating private military companies — Laura A. Dickinson
