Regulation of Private Military Companies in Iraq

Regulation of Private Military Companies in Iraq
Author: Nihat Dumlupinar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2010
Genre: National security
ISBN:

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The number of Private Military Companies (PMCs) used by the United States in military operations has increased substantially in the last two decades. While the ratio of contractor personnel to military personnel in the Persian Gulf War was 1 to 55, it was about 1 to 1 in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Because of the intense use of PMCs by coalition forces in Iraq, problems related to their legal status, the contracting process, civilian control, and oversight have emerged. These problems require national solutions as well as effective support from the international level. In addition, the types and levels of dangers faced by states that employ PMCs are not same. Incapable or weak states, such as Iraq, are more vulnerable to the challenges of PMC use than capable or strong states, such as the United States. Moreover, weak states do not have the capacity to solve the problems inherent in using PMCs, whereas strong states do, although they need the political will to do so. Thus, at the national level, the priorities and approaches of states to PMCs must be different. In addition, international regulations must be established to reinforce national regulations governing PMCs because of the transnational nature of the Private Military Industry. The primary research questions this thesis addresses are as follows: What are the motives and capabilities of the United States and Iraq to regulate PMCs?; and How can national regulations governing PMCs be supported at the international level?

From Mercenaries to Market

From Mercenaries to Market
Author: Simon Chesterman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2007-07-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199228485

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Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to a security vaccuum, private military companies are commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support, and which play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. As they assume more responsibilities in conflict and post-conflict settings, their growing significance raises fundamental questions about their nature, their role in different regions and contexts, and their regulation. This volume examines these issues with a focus on governance, in particular the interaction between regulation and market forces. It analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead. The book as a whole is organized around four sets of questions, which are reflected in the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?

Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
Author: Jennifer K. Elsea
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2010-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1437927068

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The use of private security contractors (PSCs) to protect personnel and property in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a subject of debate. While PSCs are viewed as being vital to U.S. efforts in the region, many are concerned about transparency, accountability, and legal issues raised by the use of armed civilians to perform security tasks formerly performed by the mil. Contents of this report: Legal Status and Authorities: (a) Internat. Law: Can Contractors be Combatants?; Are They Mercenaries?; (b) Iraqi Law, and Afghan Law, and Status of U.S. Forces; (c) U.S. Law; ¿Inherently Gov¿t. Functions¿ and Other Restrictions on Gov¿t. Contracts; Prosecution of Contractor Personnel in U.S. Fed. or Mil. Courts; Uniform Code of Mil. Justice.

Shadow Force

Shadow Force
Author: David Isenberg
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2008-12-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0275996344

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From their limited use in China during World War II, for example, to their often clandestine use in Vietnam ferrying supplies before the war escalated in 1964 and 1965 when their role became more prominent-and public-private military contractors (PMCs) have played made essential contributions to the success and failures of the military and United States. Today, with an emphasis on force restructuring mandated by the Pentagon, the role of PMCs, and their impact on policy-making decisions is at an all time peak. This work analyzes that impact, focusing specifically on PMCs in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Isenberg dissects their responsibilities, the friction that exists between contractors and military commanders, problems of protocol and accountability, as well as the problems of regulation and control that PMC companies create for domestic politics. Isenberg organizes his work thematically, addressing all facets of PMCs in the current conflict from identifying who the most influential companies are and how they got to that point, to the issues that the government, military, and contractors themselves face when they take the field. He also analyzes the problem of command, control, and accountability. It is no secret that PMCs have been the source of consternation and grief to American military commanders in the field. As they work to establish more routine protocols in the field, however, questions are also being raised about the role of the contractors here at home. The domestic political arena is perhaps the most crucial battleground on which the contractors must have success. After all, they make their corporate living off of taxpayer dollars, and as such, calls for regulation have resonated throughout Washington, D.C., growing louder as the profile of PMCs increases during the current conflict.

Legal Control of the Private Military Corporation

Legal Control of the Private Military Corporation
Author: B. Sheehy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2008-12-11
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0230583016

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Private military organizations are a new and important feature of the international landscape. They offer control of potential massive violence to the highest bidder with very limited accountability. This book offers critical insights into both the phenomenon and the challenges of and potential for regulation.

Armies Without States

Armies Without States
Author: Robert Mandel
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2002
Genre: Internal security
ISBN: 9781588260666

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The book concludes with an assessment of the complexities surrounding responses to security privatization - and an exploration of when, and whether, it should be promoted rather than prevented."--BOOK JACKET.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability
Author: George Andreopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-03-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000022536

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Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have constituted a perennial feature of the security landscape. Yet, it is their involvement in and conduct during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have transformed the outsourcing of security services into such a pressing public policy and world-order issue. The PMSCs’ ubiquitous presence in armed conflict situations, as well as in post-conflict reconstruction, their diverse list of clients (governments in the developed and developing world, non-state armed groups, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and international corporations) and, in the context of armed conflict situations, involvement in instances of gross misconduct, have raised serious accountability issues. The prominence of PMSCs in conflict zones has generated critical questions concerning the very concept of security and the role of private force, a rethinking of "essential governmental functions," a rearticulation of the distinction between public/private and global/local in the context of the creation of new forms of "security governance," and a consideration of the relevance, as well as limitations, of existing regulatory frameworks that include domestic and international law (in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law). This book critically examines the growing role of PMSCs in conflict and post-conflict situations, as part of a broader trend towards the outsourcing of security functions. Particular emphasis is placed on key moral, legal, and political considerations involved in the privatization of such functions, on the impact of outsourcing on security governance, and on the main challenges confronting efforts to hold PMSCs accountable through a combination of formal and informal, domestic as well as international, regulatory mechanisms and processes. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, practitioners and advocates for a more transparent and humane security order. This book was published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Ethics.

Private Contractors and the Reconstruction of Iraq

Private Contractors and the Reconstruction of Iraq
Author: Christopher Kinsey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2009-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135220174

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Private Contractors and the Reconstruction of Iraq examines the controversial role of military contractors in the reconstruction of Iraq. When 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' was launched in March 2003, few, if any, of the Coalition's political leaders could have envisaged that within a few months the number of private contractors engaged to keep the troops supplied would exceed their actual combat strength. This alternative 'army' was not only to become the largest assemblage of contractors in living memory to accompany a military force into a war zone, but was also responsible for a fundamental transformation of how military logistics were delivered. This book explains how and why the US and UK governments became so dependent upon military contractors during the war in Iraq. It also examines the ramifications this new dependency will have on future military operations, as the conflict in Iraq has shown that private contractors are now indispensable to the attainment of both the military and political objectives of war. Finally, the book discusses what advantages and disadvantages these companies have brought to the reconstruction of Iraq, and what lessons need to be learned from this experience. This book will be of great interest to students of military and strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics and international security, and as well as policymakers and military professionals. Christopher Kinsey is a lecturer in international security at King's College London, Defence Studies Department, at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham. His previous publications include Corporate Soldiers and International Security: The Rise of Private Military Companies (Routledge: 2006)

The American Way

The American Way
Author: Kristine A. Huskey
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

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Although increased reliance on private military contractors began with U.S. involvement in the Kosovo conflict, the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq prompted an exponential growth in the private military industry, increasing not only the sheer size of the industry but the types of services as well. 'Inherently governmental functions' were being performed by private entities, but with little regulations in place for vetting, monitoring and holding accountable either the company or its personnel. This Report, as part of the National Reports Series in the Priv-War Project supported within the 7th Framework Programme by the European Commission DG Research, provides a comprehensive discussion of the use of private military and security contractors (PMSCs) by the United States since 9/11 and applicable U.S. law, regulations, and policies, with particular attention paid to the use of such firms in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Report describes the incorporation of contractors into the larger military presence and provides a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the use of contractors, specifically, the number of contractor personnel working overseas, the governmental agencies with which they are involved, the cost of contractor operations, and the various roles played by contractors. The Report also covers the entire universe of mechanisms that regulate, govern, and hold accountable the private contractor firms and their personnel, by examining the statutes and guidelines that provide for both the process of contracting with the U.S. government and the oversight of military contractors, as well as the criminal and civil legal regimes that attempt to hold PMSCs and their personnel accountable for misconduct or negligence in situations of armed conflict and post-armed conflict.

Private Military and Security Contractors

Private Military and Security Contractors
Author: Gary Schaub, Jr.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2016-06-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442260238

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In Private Military and Security Contractors (PMSCs) a multinational team of scholars and experts address a developing phenomenon: controlling the use of privatized force by states in international politics. Robust analyses of the evolving, multi-layered tapestry of formal and informal mechanisms of control address the microfoundations of the market, such as the social and role identities of contract employees, their acceptance by military personnel, and potential tensions between them. The extent and willingness of key states—South Africa, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel—to monitor and enforce discipline to structure their contractual relations with PMSCs on land and at sea is examined, as is the ability of the industry to regulate itself. Also discussed is the nascent international legal regime to reinforce state and industry efforts to encourage effective practices, punish inappropriate behavior, and shape the market to minimize the hazards of loosening states’ oligopolistic control over the means of legitimate organized violence. The volume presents a theoretically-informed synthesis of micro- and macro-levels of analysis, offering new insights into the challenges of controlling the agents of organized violence used by states for scholars and practitioners alike.