Mercenaries, Hybrid Armies and National Security by Caroline Varin

Author:Caroline Varin [Varin, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, Political Science, Security (National & International), Political Freedom
ISBN: 9781317674771
Google: TD2DBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-15T16:07:04+00:00

Private military and security companies

Private military and security companies have been the preferred security option for many political leaders in Africa. Foreign owned, these companies claim to work only for legitimate governments and offer a selection of services that range from training and advising armies to gathering intelligence, providing operational support and participating in combat operations. Tim Spicer, the CEO of private military companies (now defunct) Sandline and Aegis, defines PMCs as “corporate bodies specialising in the provision of military skills to governments: training, planning, intelligence, risk assessment, operation support and technical skills” (Spicer in Percy 2007: 60). Peter Singer categorises the industry of private military and security services into three sectors: military provider firms, military consultant firms and military support firms, which he organises according to their proximity to the conflict. Military provider firms are distinguished from the other two categories because they “run active combat operations” whereas military consulting firms offer the same services as provider firms, with the exception that they “do not operate on the battlefield itself” (Singer 2007) and are therefore, in theory, not subject to the same degree of risks and exposure as the national army. The third category, the military support firms, provides alleged non-lethal services of logistic and technical nature, although this can also include intelligence gathering.

Private military companies have generally set their headquarters in ‘Western’ countries– the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa and Israel playing host to the largest number of international companies. They are managed by retired officers from elite combat units, businessmen and former politicians. The personnel that work for these companies are mostly recruited from former combat units, including but not limited to the British Special Air Service, the US Special Operations Force and the former South African Defence Forces. Dismissed soldiers from armies in ex-Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union as well as soldiers from Latin American armies have recently been recruited into the units of these private military companies – possibly because they are cheaper than ‘Western’ soldiers. Because of the stigma attached to private military companies that associates them with mercenaries, and the media condemnation that companies like EO have faced, “the new freelance teams preferred to be known as private security companies rather than private military companies” (Geraghty 2007: 186). The actual agents that operate on the ground, however, tend to be the same veteran soldiers recycled from ad hoc mercenary operations or military coups: several of the mercenaries who were sentenced for taking part in the 2004 Equatorial Guinea plot are former Executive Outcome employees who now work in Iraq and Afghanistan for private military and security companies in an ‘advisory’ capacity.9

Not unlike previous mercenary units, private military and security companies have enjoyed limited support from the governments of the countries in which they are established: EO and Sandline had to receive government licenses to manage their contracts and operations from their home state. The 1997 Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Bill allegedly aimed at closing down EO did not stop

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