The Pros And Cons Of Private Military Contractors

In today’s time there is a huge debate whether private military contractors and security contractors are anarchic in nature. People simply describe PMC’s as groups performing functions that used to be done only by militaries even though they clearly are not. The most widely – though not universally -- accepted definition of a mercenary is that in the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. Article 47 which put forth six criteria, all of which must be met, for a combatant to be considered a mercenary. It states that for a combatant to be considered a mercenary he or she must be

1. Specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;

2. Does, in fact, take a direct part in the conflict;

3. Is motivated to take

Has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.

So the question arises why does USA use PMC’s to fight its wars abroad? well PMC’s can carry out multiple tasks efficiently and discreetly and are thus incredibly useful while supplementing a nation’s military but they are not directly accountable as a governments military is, they do not have the state’s best interests at heart and are not always under the same rules and regulations which can lead to gross human rights violations all for the sake of monetary gain.

PMC’s can be used to help intervene in dangerous situations where other nation states are either unable or unwilling to provide support either financially or in terms of military power. A prominent example of this would be the Rwanda genocide in 1994; if PMC’s were used in this situation they might have been able to break the fighting between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Contrary to this PMC’s do not provide sufficient screening while hiring individuals which causes a lack of accountability even though PMC’s believe that their recruits have no incentive to abandon their posts or violate their contracts there is no guarantee that they will not do so. Although historically PMC’s have been successful in resolving conflict especially in the case of Executive Outcomes a South African firm which helped end conflicts in Angola along with Sierra

Such reliance on PMC’s can prove to be fatal for the United States of America as they might become overly dependent on PMC’s, in order for these PMC’s to function efficiently they will need Intel on the states operations. This information can be sold to enemy states as PMC’s lack a conscience for what is right and what is wrong and the only incentive they require is financial in nature. These factors can also put the security of the client under risk, the security which was the essential reason the PMC was