PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY COMPANIES: ETHICS, POLICIES AND CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONS/EDITED BY ANDREW ALEXANDRA, DEANE-PETER BAKER AND MARINA CAPARINI

Abstract

This publication contributes to a growing body of literature on a phenomenon, theprivatization of the means of coercion, that manifests on the international strategiclandscape. Whether a phenomenon one agrees with, or not, private military andsecurity companies form an rising and real feature within the daily life ofindividuals, communities and states of the international system. International,regional and national security, as well as the security of the individual isincreasingly entwined in services provided by private military and securitycontractors. The editors accordingly acknowledge that “… [the] astonishing growthof private and security companies (PMSCs) is clearly one of the most noteworthydevelopments in national and international security arrangements …”.The content of the publication covers three fields of enquiry: ethics, policies andlaw, and civil-military relations and stems from a research programme sponsored bySouth African, Australian and Swiss institutions. At the heart of the publicationresides the inherent conflict and controversy between private contractors and thechallenge they bring to traditional views regarding the regulation and operation ofthe control over force and its application. Inherently the publication attempts tocontribute to the debate on how to regulate or control a new way of employing andcontrolling instruments of violence in the international system.