Private military company
However, contractors that use armed force in a war zone may be considered unlawful combatants in reference to a concept that is outlined in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly stated by the 2006 American Military Commissions Act.
Some examples have included military aviation repair in East Africa,[2] close protection for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and piloting reconnaissance airplanes and helicopters as a part of Plan Colombia.
[6] 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.
[14] The Center for Public Integrity reported that since 1994, the Defense Department entered into 3,601 contracts worth $300 billion with twelve US-based PMCs, specifically during the initial response after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Driven by increasing fears of domestic terror attacks and civil unrest and disruption in the wake of disasters, more conventional security companies are moving into operations arenas that would fall within the definition of a PMC.
[15][16] Blackwater, and private military contractors in general, became notorious in the 21st century after their usage by the United States government in the American occupation of Iraq.
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.
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.
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.
On April 5, 2005, Jamie Smith, CEO of SCG International Risk announced the expansion of services from the traditional roles of PMCs of protection and intelligence to military aviation support.
In 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Swiss government, and contributors from private security companies and the civil society/NGO sector developed and proposed the Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies, detailing international legal obligations and specific recommendations related to PSC services procurement practices and operational oversight, as well as clarifying the obligations of states pertaining to the hiring of such entities during armed conflicts.
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.
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.
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.
They supplied armed guards at a US Army base in Qatar, and they used live ammunition to train soldiers at Camp Doha in Kuwait.
[5] In 2010, several Blackwater PMC employees "were indicted on unlawful killing charges in connection with their work as US government contractors during the Iraq War"; founder Erik Prince sold the company and departed soon thereafter.
In February 2023 it was reported that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree which allowed Gazprom to launch "a mercenary army".
[60][61] According to one Dutch study, it was estimated that no more than approximately 35,000 operators of private military and security companies ever participated in combat in the Russo-Ukrainian War as of 2024.
[67] Eeben Barlow apparently brought the idea of PMCs to Russia in 2010; there he gave an invited talk to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, as well as presented the PMC concept to representatives of the General Staff of the AFRF.
[68] The existence of Russian PMCs seems to go as far back as 2011, when the Syrian Civil War kicked off and violent unrest was felt in Libya before Muammar Gaddafi was eliminated in October.
[69] State-owned enterprise Rostec and its subsidiaries Rosboronexport and Technopromexport, as well as privately owned StroyTransGaz (STG) and Tatneft have billions of dollars invested in international affairs and like to hire from the Russian PMC sector.
[74] In January 2018, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of PMC employees that legislation was needed to "protect these people",[74] while Duma member Mikhail Yemelyanov authored a bill to do just that "because private military companies are legal in many countries"; continuing: "We wrote in the bill that the defence ministry would coordinate and that participation in armed conflicts would only be with their permission.
[78] 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 UN office in Geneva (UNOG) said that "Accusations that US government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries is inaccurate.
While past calls for corporate responsibility have heralded successes such as the Kimberley Process and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in widespread international operations, there has also been a move within the PSC and contingency contracting industries to call for accountability and to implement a code of ethics for the retention of services and operations of such service providers.
