Private Military And Security Companies After The Cold War Analysis
Private Military and Security Companies after the Cold War
An analysis of the causes of the proliferation of PMSCs, their implications under IHL and outsourcing peace support missions to PMSCs.
Name: Tuyet Anh Mandy Nguyen Student number: 2549857 Course: The Changing nature of war
Lecturers: Prof. dr. W.G. Werner and Prof. dr. W. Wagner
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 18th of October 2014
1. Introduction
Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and their legal and political complications have been hotly debated. Governments hire PMSCs to delegate military chores ranging from military logistics to training and cooking. The most interesting questions arise when PMSC personnel is on the frontline …show more content…
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the Berlin Wall in 1989, many states such as the United States and United Kingdom cut down military budgets and withdrew many permanent troops that were deployed in Europe, the US, Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East. According to the U.S. Department of State, US military troops decreased from 2.1 million (1989) to 1.3 million (2001). A shift in warfare became apparent in the sense that states did not utilize one massive state army anymore. There was less need to defend physical territories with large heavy tanks and many military employees. This resulted in unemployment among former military personnel. Because the cuts in military budgets were deep, the unemployment rate was extremely high. In addition there was also a high availability of used armaments, transportation equipment, armed vehicles at very low cost. With the supply of former military personnel, armaments and other equipments, the forming and increase of PMSCs was only a matter of time. The political cause for the expansion of the PMSC industry was an economic ideology reinforced years earlier during the period of the Reagan and Thatcher administrations. This ideology entailed outsourcing government tasks to the private market to reduce costs and maximize efficiency. The implementation in the military sector took place after the Cold War. Sandline …show more content…
The Gulf War in 1991 was estimated to have a ratio of private contractors to soldiers at 1 to 60 and increased to 1 to 10 in Bosia and 1 to 2 in Kosovo. In the Iraq War the estimation was even higher with a ratio of 10 to 1. However, these numbers are challenged. Some scholars argue that the numbers of private contractors in these conflicts was even higher. The fact remains that these numbers did increase over time. With these different causes for both developing and developed states, it was no surprise under these conditions governments decided to employ private forces to fight on their behalf and allowing the PMSCs industry to
An analysis of the causes of the proliferation of PMSCs, their implications under IHL and outsourcing peace support missions to PMSCs.
Name: Tuyet Anh Mandy Nguyen Student number: 2549857 Course: The Changing nature of war
Lecturers: Prof. dr. W.G. Werner and Prof. dr. W. Wagner
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 18th of October 2014
1. Introduction
Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and their legal and political complications have been hotly debated. Governments hire PMSCs to delegate military chores ranging from military logistics to training and cooking. The most interesting questions arise when PMSC personnel is on the frontline …show more content…
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the Berlin Wall in 1989, many states such as the United States and United Kingdom cut down military budgets and withdrew many permanent troops that were deployed in Europe, the US, Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East. According to the U.S. Department of State, US military troops decreased from 2.1 million (1989) to 1.3 million (2001). A shift in warfare became apparent in the sense that states did not utilize one massive state army anymore. There was less need to defend physical territories with large heavy tanks and many military employees. This resulted in unemployment among former military personnel. Because the cuts in military budgets were deep, the unemployment rate was extremely high. In addition there was also a high availability of used armaments, transportation equipment, armed vehicles at very low cost. With the supply of former military personnel, armaments and other equipments, the forming and increase of PMSCs was only a matter of time. The political cause for the expansion of the PMSC industry was an economic ideology reinforced years earlier during the period of the Reagan and Thatcher administrations. This ideology entailed outsourcing government tasks to the private market to reduce costs and maximize efficiency. The implementation in the military sector took place after the Cold War. Sandline …show more content…
The Gulf War in 1991 was estimated to have a ratio of private contractors to soldiers at 1 to 60 and increased to 1 to 10 in Bosia and 1 to 2 in Kosovo. In the Iraq War the estimation was even higher with a ratio of 10 to 1. However, these numbers are challenged. Some scholars argue that the numbers of private contractors in these conflicts was even higher. The fact remains that these numbers did increase over time. With these different causes for both developing and developed states, it was no surprise under these conditions governments decided to employ private forces to fight on their behalf and allowing the PMSCs industry to