Mercenaries

I

Introduction

Mercenaries, traditionally individuals, frequently former soldiers, who fight for and are motivated by private gain, as distinguished from soldiers who owe military service to their nation. Some commentators, on the other hand, believe the real mark of the mercenary is a devotion to warfare for its own sake. Historically, mercenaries were often foreigners, rather than citizens or even residents of the nation for which they fought. The name has now come to mean only foreign auxiliaries.

Mercenaries have been used throughout the history of warfare. They were particularly popular with European rulers from about the 13th century to the French Revolution, when they were marginalized by conscript armies. Mercenaries re-emerged on the international stage in the 1960s and 1970s, and were used by national liberation movements, particularly in Africa, during the post-colonial period. However, unlike earlier periods of European history, this new group of mercenaries has been criminalized by the international community using international law. Even so, they still operate today in many conflicts. The International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1989, defines those actions that are prohibited in its title.

II

Private Security Companies

By the mid-1970s a different type of security force started to appear on the international stage. Globalization and international terrorism gave rise to private security companies (PSCs), whose original roots were established in the mercenary operations in Africa and the Middle East during the 1960s and 1970s. There was now a genuine need for military-type security, different from domestic security, especially in the commercial sector. PSCs filled that vacuum. Thus, by the mid-1970s, PSCs had established themselves as legally constituted commercial forces distinct from mercenaries.

The nature of PSCs is of corporate entities that offer a range of security services that are normally defensive in nature even though they operate in some of the most dangerous regions around the world. They are typically founded by former servicemen and, like the military, may carry guns and adopt a tactical approach to their work. PSCs have permanent management structures, and as such have a permanent presence on the international stage. They are registered businesses with a legal personality, normally operating from established offices, and generally operate using databases of personnel with a range of expertise usually able to meet with client criteria. As with any business, they adopt rules and regulations that are expressed through a corporate ethos and policy documents, as well as performing all the normal business functions associated with a company, including sales and marketing, administration, personnel, and accounts. In this respect, they are no different to any other commercial business.

The role of PSCs is to provide a range of security services to governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the commercial sector. Because PSCs offer a similar range of services, or sometimes may even supply the same services, as private military companies (PMCs; see below), they are frequently referred to as PMCs. Moreover, the term “private military company” is frequently used to describe all security actors, even though the term also represents a particular type distinct from others on the international security industry stage.

Europe-based PSCs tend to operate with a strong commercial focus, in that they usually have to go out and find business in the marketplace. On the other hand, in the United States, PSCs, particularly the large multinational PSCs, tend to rely very heavily on US government contracts that frequently run into the tens of millions of dollars. In this respect, the commercial market is not their first place of call, but government agencies instead.

The services supplied by PSCs include unarmed and occasionally armed escorts; unarmed and occasionally armed protection of infrastructures and buildings; armed protection of personnel; security training that may have a military application; police training; logistical support; post-conflict support packages; mine clearance; intelligence gathering; security audits, and risk and threat analysis; and commercial due diligence.

Examples of PSCs, as of 2006, include ArmorGroup International and Aegis Defence Services, from the United Kingdom, and DynCorp International, from the United States. Notable contracts signed by PSCs have included the one worth approximately US$293 million between Aegis Defence Services and the US Department of Defense in 2004 to coordinate the activities of reconstruction agencies operating in Iraq (see War on Iraq). Under the same contract, the company also agreed to supply armed civilians to protect US government officials. Other contracts have included the one worth approximately US$290 million over three years that was signed between DynCorp International and the US Department of State in 2004 to train and equip Afghanistan’s police force, and the one signed between ArmorGroup International and the Croatian Mine Action Centre in 2001 to clear roads in the area of Zadar and Šibenik. This latter contract was funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

III

Private Military Companies

Similar to PSCs, PMCs are corporate entities that offer a range of military services to clients. They too are typically founded by former servicemen and, like the military, carry guns and adopt a tactical approach to their work. However, their carriage of arms is considered usual, while PSCs still consider them to be unusual. PMCs also differ from PSCs in that they generally engage in, or support, offensive combat operations, normally in support of a beleaguered government. Such operations may seize ground and try to influence the balance of power in favour of their client. Their aim is to facilitate strategic enhancement through acting as a force multiplier to national forces and thus have a strategic impact on the political and security environment of the country in which they operate. In doing so, PMCs provide public security, whereas non-state armed groups challenging the constitutional order of the state tend to hire traditional mercenaries.

The structure of PMCs is one of permanent management with a permanent staff. They have a permanent presence on the international stage and are no different to any other business. Furthermore, since they are registered businesses, they have a legal personality, operate from established offices, and adopt rules and regulations that are expressed through a corporate ethos and policy documents. PMCs are frequently referred to as database armies because it is from databases that they draw their expertise for the contracts they undertake. PMCs perform all the necessary support services associated with any business, for example sales and marketing, accounting, personnel, and administration, etc. They are in many ways the military transformed into the private sector in a business guise.

However, not all PMCs provide public security and engage in, or support, offensive operations. Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) has provided military and law enforcement training for the US government and selected foreign governments. In doing so, it did not arm its employees when deploying them. In this respect, the company is unique and is frequently referred to as a passive PMC.

Generally, the services presently offered by PMCs vary according to their level of expertise and may include combat and operational support; military advice and training; arms procurement; logistical support; intelligence gathering; post-conflict support packages; and medical training.

The term “private military company” appears to have first been used by the security industry in the early 1990s, and was associated with the now defunct South African company, Executive Outcomes (EO). The company was hired by the Angolan government in 1993 to regain Soyo, an important oil exporting centre in Angola, from the UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola/National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) rebel movement. Then in September of the same year, the same government offered EO a one-year contract to train 5,000 troops; the contract was later extended to January 1996. EO was also employed in Sierra Leone in 1996 to support the National Provisional Ruling Council government of Valentine Strasser against the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group backed by Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor, during Sierra Leone’s civil war. Another example of a PMC was Sandline International, based in the United Kingdom. Sandline caused a political storm that was felt at the heart of the UK government in 1998 when it shipped 30 tonnes of arms to Sierra Leone, in contravention of a UN arms embargo, to help restore the government of ousted President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The incident soon became known as the Arms-to-Africa Affair.

Other examples of PMC contracts have included the one signed between the government of Papua New Guinea and Sandline International in 1997 to end the eight-year conflict between the government and separatist rebels on the island of Bougainville. Another was the contract signed between the Croatian government and MPRI in 1994 to help train the Croatian army, thus transforming it from a Warsaw Pact-orientated force to a Western-styled force. Under the contract, MPRI was employed to design a defence management programme to improve the possibility of the country becoming a candidate for the NATO-driven Partnership for Peace scheme.