International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   The contemporary proliferation of actors that provide security and military services ranging from combat forces to military logistics and training has led to a growing public debate and academic literature regarding their origins and implications. On the practical side, there has been a concern over the control of private military actors following contentious incidents such as the involvement of “mercenary companies” in the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Angola, the role of the company MPRI in Croatian ethnic cleansing and the shooting of innocent civilians on the streets of Baghdad by employees of the US firm Blackwater (e.g. Cilliers and Mason 1999 ; Singer 2003 ; Kinsey 2006 ; Jäger and Kümmel 2006 ). On the theoretical and normative side, the return of private forces has raised questions regarding their implications for state sovereignty, the nature of contemporary warfare and civil–military relations (e.g. Avant 2005 ; Chesterman and Lehnardt 2007 ; Alexandra et al. 2008 ). What is indubitable is that the number and importance of private security and military firms for national and international security has increased exponentially since the end of the Cold War. One of the most frequently cited observations has been that during the first Gulf War the number of private military and security contractors to uniformed soldiers was 1 in 100, during ... log in or subscribe to read full text