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North South University

Department of General and Continuing Education

Private Military Companies and their impact on International Relations

Fakhrul Islam 081 604 540

INT101, Sec 3 Moushumi Shabnam [MuS] 20th December 2010

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Abstract
Over the last 2 or 3 decades the world saw a sudden rise of the Private Military Companies [henceforth addressed as PMCs], their deployment now in hundreds and thousands around the world have certain effects on the field of International Relations [henceforth addressed as IR]. The following paper discusses their origins, effects and evolution. Also discussed in this paper are the threats that they pose to the status quo in IR, their current operations, deployments and involvement in conflicts in different areas in the world. The method of research was archival as most of the research materials were collected from the internet, newspapers and books. The implications for the whole paper would be two: Most of the materials (documents and deals) that are done with the PMCs are kept as beyond subpoena, classified, therefore we get to know all these information from the outsiders viewpoint and sometimes a rather biased internal view of the PMCs. The second implication affecting this paper will be the time, the time available wasnt enough to collect and dissect all the information gathered at the primary stage.

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Introduction
Throughout history PMCs existed, in different form and manners. As notorious mercenaries or as freelance assassins, but one thing was consistent about them, their questionable allegiance and loyalty as it was sold to the highest bidder. Machiavelli in his famous work on state management, The Prince, wrote, The mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and if anyone supports his state by the arms of mercenaries, he will never stand firm or sure, as they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, faithless, bold amongst friends, cowardly amongst enemies, they have no fear of God, and keep no faith with men. (Chapter 13) Mercenaries were also condemned by Sun Tzu in his legendary Art of War, who was the Machiavellis philosophical predecessor of Chinese origin. Even though most of the military and governments around the world follow the above books as creeds for governance and military strategy, how can they support the PMCs? This paper will concern the following key questions concerning the PMCs: 1. How they are affecting IR and how they are related to IR 2. Their operations and how it poses threat to the status quo in IR 3. Their involvement in different arrays of illegal activities during their operations

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Hypothesis
From the research conducted I came to appreciate the global market for PMCs, the threats they poses and their illegal operations and engagements in line of duty and through my research I will show that the PMCs are going to evolve to a deadly combo of intelligentsia and military might which can threaten the individual state players in the International System and have the potential to be hegemonic threats to these individual state actors. Thus, effectively speaking, regulating the International Laws and Organizations.

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Analyses
Rise from the Ashes
After a gradual decline because of the nationalization of the armies around the world in the early 20th century, the prospect of mercenaries were on the rise at the starting of the last decade of the last century as the Cold War ended and the former conflicting superpowers didnt need large standing military force thus most of it was disbanded, willingly and intentionally and in most cases otherwise. The sudden growth of the industry can then be tracked to the following reasons:1 1. Post-Cold War great apathy about many areas and conflicts of the world a. After the end of cold war none of the former superpowers were interested to intervene or get involved militarily in small scale national/civil conflicts around the worlds until it was vital to their own interests. This influenced unhelpfully to the Peace Keeping dispatches from the UN, which was limped of the ability to field enough trained men in the field affecting it still today leaving the demand for the peace keeping forces unfulfilled by the state actors and the international organizations. 2. A post-Cold War glut of trained manpower and arms a. The worlds armies number of soldiers shrank by six millions between the years 1987 to 19962. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many of the former Soviet Armies were left out in the former Soviet Republics and around the Eastern Bloc countries which were later disbanded as the emergent Russian Federation wasnt economically capable of maintaining those forces. These manpower sought employment from the skills that they have already honed and perfected. These men can be later found in many of the EuroAsian and African conflicts, working for the PMCs. The prospect of personal monetary benefits are not to be underestimated here as many soldiers, specialists and officers of the national armies join the PMCs due to the high payment rates3 which are sometimes 2 or 3 times higher than that of the national armies.4 3. Ascendency of the neo-liberal agenda, particularly privatization, in developed and developing countries a. The rise of the neo-liberal agenda in many countries act as the stepping stone for the rise of the PMCs as they came to believe that privatization is the key to good and efficient organizations.

Spear, Dr. Joanna (2006) Market Forces: The Political Economy of the Private Military Companies Economies of conflict: Private sector activities in armed conflicts (pg. 11-16)
2

Bonn International Centre for Conversion, Conversion Survey 1998: Global Disarmament, Defence Industry Consolidation and Conversion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p.39. 3 Interestingly, in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, U.S. military commanders have complained that PMCs operating in Iraq are poaching some of their best-trained soldiers with economic packages that the armed forces cant match. 4 Lindsay Murdoch and Phillip van Niekerk, Mercenaries Who Show No Mercy, February 25, 1997.

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The Domain of Operations The Land of the SEAL Kings

Most of the PMCs are land based, most of their doctrines and training capacity concentrates on the cannon fodder foot soldiers and none of them has got any form of aerial engagement capability making them depend on the national air forces. There is also a new initiative to start a private navy to guard the shipping lines near the Somali coast which had been a favorite feeding ground for the pirates who hijack the merchant vessels passing the coast. The insurance companies are supporting the initiative monetarily along with some national armies to organize and command the private navy5. The intelligence community is also outsourcing their operations to some of the PMCs who are capable of collecting and analyzing intelligence materials and carry out Black Ops with cooperation from the national army in some cases where denial is crucial.

Deployments Where Devils dare not

Their deployments mainly see them in war ravaged African nations as peace keepers and in some cases hired by the governments to keep their throne safe or the rebels to help them in their drive to power. Apart from that these PMC guys are concurrently deployed in the most prominent of battle fields of the modern times. 1. Iraq guarding strategic and foreign installations, guarding prisons and detention centers. 2. Afghanistan same as Iraq, but has shown ineffective results in larger scale deployments. 3. Pakistan- CIA employed PMC Blackwater (now Xe Services Worldwide) accused of killing civilians and carrying out subversive activities by supplying training and logistics to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan AKA TTP.

Tweaking the Foreign Policies for Economic benefit

PMCs are now an industry which accounts for approximately $100 billion of Annual Global revenue a figure that will double by the end of this year (2010)6 Their ability to affect or tweak state foreign policies for economic benefits is an inevitable threat to the international system as they has shown in the following situations7

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey is a prominent example of the phenomenon, mixing his business interests with what he contend are the country's strategic interests. Neil Livingstone, a former Senate aide who has served as a Pentagon and State Department advisor and issued repeated public calls for Hussein's overthrow. He heads a Washington-based

http://feraljundi.com/2010/09/28/maritime-security-insurance-firms-plan-private-navy-to-take-on-somalipirates/ 6 Spear, Dr. Joanna (2006) Market Forces: The Political Economy of the Private Military Companies Economies of conflict: Private sector activities in armed conflicts (pg. 7) 7 Los Angeles Times July 14, 2004, Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction by Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein

Page |7 PMCs and their Impact on IR firm, GlobalOptions, Inc. that provides contacts and consulting services to companies doing business in Iraq.

Randy Scheunemann, a former Rumsfeld advisor who helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 authorizing $98 million in U.S. aid to Iraqi exile groups. He was the founding president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Now he's helping former Soviet Bloc states win business there. Margaret Bartel, who managed federal money channeled to Chalabi's exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, including funds for its prewar intelligence program on Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. She now heads a Washington-area consulting firm helping would-be investors find Iraqi partners. K. Riva Levinson, a Washington lobbyist and public relations specialist who received federal funds to drum up prewar support for the Iraqi National Congress. She has close ties to Bartel and now helps companies open doors in Iraq, in part through her contacts with the Iraqi National Congress. Joe M. Allbaugh, who managed President Bush's 2000 campaign for the White House and later headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Edward Rogers Jr., an aide to the first President Bush, recently helped set up New Bridge Strategies and Diligence, LLC to promote business in postwar Iraq. Rogers was retained in July 2004 as the chief lobbyist for the Kurdish Democratic Party. "In 2001, according to the most recent federal disclosure forms, 10 private military companies spent more than $32 million on lobbying." More recently, "the ten largest contractors in the nation spent more than $27 million lobbying the federal government in the last quarter of 2009," according to a review of lobbying records. "The massive amount of money used to influence the legislative process came as the White House announced it would ramp up military activity in Afghanistan and Congress considered appropriations bills to pay for that buildup"8

Security Issues
Some PMCs have potential capabilities to invade and take control of a state, which was displayed by some PMCs in the Equatorial Guinea9. When used as Training Advisors they tend to be effective as it happened in the Serbo-Croatian conflict10. PMCs knowingly or unknowingly pose existential threat to conventional armies as they have proven themselves to be an effective and efficient conflict resolution
8
st

Huffington Post, 1 January 2010, Top Defense Contractors Spent $27 Million Lobbying At Time Of Afghan Surge Announcement by Sam Stein
9

Coup Attempt in Equatorial Guinea by Lisa Graves, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coup_Attempt_in_Equatorial_Guinea

10

U.S. Mercenaries were behind Croatian offensive in Balkan War by Ron Grossman, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20923

Page |8 PMCs and their Impact on IR mechanism. The conventional armies have sustainability issues and needs constant improvisation whereas the PMCs come all prepared to fight and serves you once the deals and payments are done. Quoting Barry Yeoman from his article Soldiers of good fortune in Indy Week in 23rd July 2003: "The Pentagon has become so dependent on private military companies that it literally cannot wage war without them. Troops already rely on for-profit contractors to maintain 28 percent of all weapons systems." "There are some weapons systems that the U.S. military forces do not have the capability to do their own maintenance on," concedes David Young, a deputy commander at the Defense Contract Management Agency."

Illegal Activities
There are allegations against PMCs of the following illegal activities but not limited to: Human and drug trafficking Arms Smuggling Taking sides when deployed as UN Peacekeepers by making silent-deals Abusing POWs and civilians in their AOR

Benefits Are there any?

PMCs can be highly responsive (adhocracy) in contrary to conventional armies (bureaucracy) and contain specialists in different fields of expertise in warfare. International recruitment capabilities confirm that they are able to operate in many different locations in the world among many ethnic groups and regions. It is politically less costly to field PMCs. PMCs are seen as working for profit of their own accord and sending them abroad is not held to the same standard that sending normal troops, working for their country. For example, in Pakistan USA deployed Blackwater to provide intel support to the ISAF forces in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, if any national troops were sent down to do this then they would have been seen as aggressors.

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Conclusion
Evolution
PMCs, GCIs along with the DEMs have the combined capability to start and stop wars and these ruthless people for their benefits will continue to do so. Much of this initiations are silent and covert, what we come to see and appreciate are the dead from the overt firing maneuvers. Even though the UN had a legislation about Mercenaries, it isnt applied that much. The benefits pointed out earlier doesnt out number or out weight the harms that they potentially are capable of doing. So it is suggested that these Dogs of Wars be leased and penned when their services are not required.

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References
Spear, Dr. Joanna (2006) Market Forces: The Political Economy of the Private Military Companies Economies of conflict: Private sector activities in armed conflicts Bonn International Centre for Conversion, Conversion Survey 1998: Global Disarmament, Defence Industry Consolidation and Conversion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p.39. Lindsay Murdoch and Phillip van Niekerk, Mercenaries Who Show No Mercy, February 25, 1997. Los Angeles Times July 14, 2004, Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction by Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein Huffington Post, 1st January 2010, Top Defense Contractors Spent $27 Million Lobbying At Time Of Afghan Surge Announcement by Sam Stein Coup Attempt in Equatorial Guinea by Lisa Graves, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coup_Attempt_in_Equatorial_Guinea U.S. Mercenaries were behind Croatian offensive in Balkan War by Ron Grossman, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20923