The Emergence of Private Military Companies: An economical and political dimension, and a major strategic issue.

Thèmes abordés

Private military Companies, Societé militaires privées, mercenaires, mercenariat, mercenaries, Irak, Blackwater, Xe, Armoredcorps, Security

Résumé du document

Private Military Company, the association of these three words seems surprising. It is indeed generally accepted that military operations is public and is a matter of state, which has the monopole of physical violence, according to Max Weber. Moreover reference to a company, economical actor, seems unlikely. After all, war cannot be the objective for a business. Defense and security cannot be a merchandising service.
This conception must be revised after analyzing the recent events. Since the end of the Cold War, numerous companies, mostly English-speaking, developed themselves by commercializing defense and security services. These civilian structures, most of the time leaded by ex-high ranked personnel from regular armed forces, carry out missions which were before strictly given to the armies, and touches the core of military activities : logistics, training and formation, weapon maintenance on battlefields.

Extraits

[...] They are therefore offer a tremendous asset to the country that send them, an economical one as well as a strategic one not to be taken lightly. However, they can be assimilated as mercenaries, although mercenaries are forbidden by the law in many countries, they do not fall into this category. There is a juridical gap and they don't fall under any regulation. And because of that, armed forces on the field dealing with PMCs often define them as “comboys”, indeed they don't obey to any chain of command and are very difficult to manage. [...]

[...] It consists of adopting a juridical instrument which would, on one hand, define the private activities in military support and security, and on the other hand establish authorization, control and disciplinary mechanism. We can take for examples initiatives coming from the USA and South Africa. Companies would ask a sort of “permit” in order to be enabled to fulfill certain missions. It would come to the State to establish a regulatory frame to decide which companies would be authorized or not. Moreover they could require a register of their personnel. It would be convenient, as well, to submit contracts to a procedure of notification to the State. [...]

[...] First of all, contracting Private Companies has for effect of blending economic logics with war organisation. It is hazardous for the commanding unit and the control needed in military operations. As a matter of fact, contractors are not part of the chain of command, and can desert their post whenever they want. If an employee decides to resign, the company has the duty to replace him, but a lot of events can happen between the two actions. And from this can depend the success of an operation . [...]

[...] The American Army therefore contracted private companies in order to maintain very sophisticated weapons, like B-2 bombers, stealth F-117 planes, U-2 spy-planes etc . Expertise in intelligence is part of services that they provide. Company Diligence LLC says that its squads are composed of “ex-members of the American secret services, as well as English and Russian's”. Private Military Companies would have participated in the joint operation between American army and CIA to capture Oussama Ben Laden in Afghanistan. Competencies in matter of intelligence are researched by companies for industrial spying and in a process of economic intelligence. [...]

[...] However such a position seems difficult to maintain, inasmuch as Private Military Companies are, as we have seen it, entities clearly separated from the army. As for an example, the army's chain of command does not apply between them and the contractors. As a matter of fact, contractors are not allowed to wear the uniform, nor receive any medals or military distinctions. In numerous situations, private auxiliaries turn out to be, in fact, part of a second category, the non combatant civilian working with the armed forces but without being members of them.It is the case, for example, of the personnel carrying out restoration services and laundry cleaning. [...]