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A '''private military company''' ('''PMC''') or ''' private military and security company''' ('''PMSC''') is a [[private company]] providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "'''security contractors'''" or "'''private military contractors'''".
The services and expertise offered by PMCs are typically similar to those of governmental [[security]], [[military]], or [[police]] but most often on a smaller scale. PMCs often provide services to train or supplement official [[armed forces]] in service of governments, but they can also be employed by private companies to provide [[bodyguards]] for key staff or protection of company premises, especially in hostile territories. However, contractors that use armed force in a [[war
Private military companies carry out many missions and jobs. Some examples have included military aviation repair in East Africa,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Global Aircraft Support Services – On Location |url=https://kingaerospace.com/military/global-support-services/ |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=King Aerospace |language=en-US}}</ref> [[close protection]] for Afghan President [[Hamid Karzai]] and piloting reconnaissance airplanes and helicopters as a part of [[Plan Colombia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vieira |first=Constanza |date=2007-07-17 |title=COLOMBIA-ECUADOR: Coca Spraying Makes for Toxic Relations |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38576 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118035255/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38576 |archive-date=2008-01-18 |publisher=IPS}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">''[http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1253 Private Security Transnational Enterprises in Colombia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417203427/http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1253|date=2008-04-17}}'' [[José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective]] February, 2008.</ref> According to a 2003 study, the industry was then earning over $100 billion a year.<ref name="Soldiers of Good Fortune">{{Cite magazine |last=Yeoman |first=Barry |date=2003-06-01 |title=Soldiers of Good Fortune |url=https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/05/ma_365_01.html |url-status=live |magazine=Mother Jones |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070520151719/https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/05/ma_365_01.html |archive-date=2007-05-20 |access-date=2007-05-08}}</ref>
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Dramatic growth in the number and size of PMCs occurred at the end of the [[Cold War]]. The exodus of over 6 million military personnel from Western militaries in the 1990s expanded the recruiting pool for PMCs. Some of the larger corporations included [[Vinnell]] and [[Military Professional Resources Inc.]] in the [[United States]]; [[G4S]] and Keeni-Meeny Services in the [[United Kingdom]]; and Lordan-Levdan in [[Israel]] and [[Executive Outcomes]] in [[South Africa]].
Some commentators have argued that there was an exodus from many [[special operations forces]] across the globe towards these private military corporations. Units that were allegedly severely affected included the [[British Armed Forces|British]] [[Special Air Service]],<ref name="dtcrisis">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/14/nsas14.xml
The [[Center for Public Integrity]] reported that since 1994, the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] entered into 3,601 contracts worth $300 billion with twelve US-based PMCs, specifically during the initial response after [[Hurricane Katrina]] in [[New Orleans]].{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
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In 2007, the American [[Uniform Code of Military Justice]] was amended to allow for prosecution of [[military contractor]]s deployed in a "[[Declaration of war|declared war]] or a [[contingency operation]]."
==== International Code of Conduct (2008) ====
{{main|International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers}}
In 2008, the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]], the [[Swiss government]], and contributors from private security companies and the civil society/[[NGO]] sector developed and proposed the [[Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies]], detailing international legal obligations and specific recommendations related to PSC services procurement practices and operational oversight, as well as clarifying the obligations of states pertaining to the hiring of such entities during armed conflicts.<ref>International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), [http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/ montreux-document-170908.htm "The Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies"] (accessed 8 February 2013)</ref> As of December 2018, fifty-four states had signed the Montreux Document.<ref name="adach">{{Cite web |title=The Montreux Document |url=https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/foreign-policy/international-law/international-humanitarian-law/private-military-security-companies/montreux-document.html |access-date=2019-09-27 |website=www.eda.admin.ch |language=en}}</ref>
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* In 2015, [[STTEP International]], ('''S'''pecialised '''T'''asks, '''T'''raining, '''E'''quipment & '''P'''rotection) was credited with providing support to the [[Nigerian military]] that has proved decisive in containing [[Boko Haram]] activities in Nigeria. The [[chairman]] of STTEP, Eeben Barlow, is the former [[Chief executive officer|CEO]] and founder of [[Executive Outcomes]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Freeman |first=Colin |date=15 May 2015 |title=Nigeria hired South African mercenaries to wage a secret war on Africa's deadliest jihadist group |work=The Telegraph |agency=Online |issue=Business Insider |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/south-african-mercenaries-waged-secret-war-on-boko-haram-2015-5 |url-status=live |access-date=30 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150806014345/http://www.businessinsider.com/south-african-mercenaries-waged-secret-war-on-boko-haram-2015-5 |archive-date=6 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Freeman |first=Colin |date=30 May 2015 |title=How to defeat a caliphate: Private military contractors have a bad name, but a great record against the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9541942/mercenaries-could-transform-the-fight-against-isis-if-we-let-them/ |url-status=live |magazine=The Spectator |issue=Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150729171857/http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9541942/mercenaries-could-transform-the-fight-against-isis-if-we-let-them/ |archive-date=29 July 2015 |access-date=30 July 2015 |agency=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Murphy |first=Jack |date=1 April 2015 |title=Eeben Barlow Speaks Out (Pt. 1): PMC and Nigerian Strike Force Devastates Boko Haram |publisher=Force12 Media |agency=Special Operations Forces Situation Report |issue=Online |url=http://sofrep.com/40608/eeben-barlow-south-african-pmc-devestates-boko-haram-pt1/ |url-status=live |access-date=30 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725104451/http://sofrep.com/40608/eeben-barlow-south-african-pmc-devestates-boko-haram-pt1/ |archive-date=25 July 2015}}</ref>
* The Central African-based park ranger organization [[African Wildlife Defence Force]] contracts former servicemen and law enforcement personnel to protect national parks and private game ranches in Africa. Candidates must undergo additional retraining to become park rangers. They are also referred to as Private Ranger Contractors or PRC.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
* According to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), since 2017, the Russian-based PMC, Wagner Group, has been operating continuously in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, as well as in other African countries. Under the guise of helping
* According to the ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'', the South African PMC, Executive Outcomes (Founded in 1989), was committing atrocities in Sierra Leone up until the early 2000s, when they left the country and refocused their business on providing domestic security services in their native South Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 3, 2020 |title=Africa awaits: Mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes is reborn |url=https://www.upstreamonline.com/people/africa-awaits-mercenary-outfit-executive-outcomes-is-reborn/2-1-921836}}</ref><ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/oct99/sierra16.htm {{bare URL inline|date=May 2023}}</ref>
* In the mid-2000s, a group of self-proclaimed former ANC [[Resistance movement#Freedom fighter|freedom fighters]], known as the TRAKboys, began to emerge in fringe political circles within Johannesburg and Cape Town. They gained national attention in South Africa when they began calling upon leaders to demand an investigation by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development into the foreign and domestic activities of Executive Outcomes. Failed assassination attempts on several high-profile members of the TRAKboys, such as former Cape Town-based manufacturing tycoon, Dylan4K, have led to speculation, conspiracy theories and public outrage directed towards Apartheid-era, Afrikaner-owned PMCs operating in southern Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A complex History of Executive Outcomes, a South African mercenary organisation.#mercenaries |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w34L4Qu2Deg |website=[[YouTube]]| date=March 6, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Howe |first=Herbert M. |year=1998 |title=Private security forces and African stability: The case of Executive Outcomes |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/abs/private-security-forces-and-african-stability-the-case-of-executive-outcomes/2CA0FBC697D26E09F5D9F998F4BE92B8 |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=307–331 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X98002778 |doi-broken-date=August 21, 2024 |s2cid=154459157}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=April 14, 2015 |title=South Africa's ageing white mercenaries who helped turn tide on Boko Haram |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/south-africas-ageing-white-mercenaries-who-helped-turn-tide-on-boko-haram}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dusty Capetown Gang leader threatens Mozambican OG Abdullah + Trakboys respond |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxg2RmHqHrU |website=[[YouTube]]| date=July 25, 2022 }}</ref>
===Balkans===
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In December 2006, there were estimated to be at least 100,000 contractors working directly for the [[United States Department of Defense]] in [[Iraq]] which was a tenfold increase in the use of private contractors for military operations since the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]], just over a decade earlier.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Merle |first=Renae |date=2006-12-05 |title=Census Counts 100,000 Contractors in Iraq |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401311.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206025051/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401311.html |archive-date=2006-12-06}}</ref> The prevalence of PMCs led to the foundation of [[trade group]] the [[Private Security Company Association of Iraq]]. In Iraq, the issue of [[accountability]], especially in the case of contractors carrying weapons, was a sensitive one. Iraqi laws do not hold over contractors.
On 5 December 2005, US [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] justified the use of PMCs in Iraq on the basis that they were cost effective and useful on the ground. He also affirmed that they were not subject to the [[Uniform Code of Military Justice]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Secretary Rumsfeld's Remarks to the Johns Hopkins, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies |url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1361 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091201095105/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1361 |archive-date=2009-12-01 |access-date=2011-12-22 |publisher=Defenselink.mil
Two days before he left Iraq, [[L. Paul Bremer]] signed "[[CPA Order 17|Order 17]]" giving all Americans associated with the [[Coalition Provisional Authority|CPA]] and the American government immunity from Iraqi law.<ref name='Newsweek 2007-09-20'>{{Cite news |last=Hirch |first=Michael |date=2007-09-20 |title=Blackwater and the Bush Legacy |page=2 |work=Newsweek |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20892483/site/newsweek/ |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001161845/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20892483/site/newsweek/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=2007-10-01}}</ref> A July 2007 report from the American [[Congressional Research Service]] indicates that the Iraqi government still had no authority over private security firms contracted by the US government.<ref name="CNN.com 2007-09-23">{{Cite news |date=2007-09-23 |title=Blackwater staff face charges |work=CNN.com |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/23/blackwater.probe/index.html |url-status=live |access-date=2007-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009192059/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/23/blackwater.probe/index.html |archive-date=2007-10-09}}</ref>
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==Other miscellany==
===Fatalities===▼
By the end of 2012, the number of contractors who had died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait had reached 3,000.
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right"
|+Contractor fatalities by employer (2001–2011)
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|}
▲===Fatalities===
▲By the end of 2012, the number of contractors who had died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait had reached 3,000. Scholars have studied whether contractor deaths have an effect on the public's "casualty sensitivity" when substituted for military fatalities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schooner |first1=Steven L |last2=Berteau |first2=David J |date=2013 |title=Emerging Policy and Practice Issues (2012) |url=https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/&httpsredir=1&article=1326&context=faculty_publications |url-status=live |pages=15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713015223/https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholarship.law.gwu.edu%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1326&context=faculty_publications |archive-date=2018-07-13 |access-date=2019-04-25}}</ref> Casualty sensitivity refers to the inverse relationship between military deaths and public support for a sustained military engagement. Contractor deaths may account for nearly 30% of total US battlefield losses since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<ref name="schoonerswan">{{Cite journal |last1=Schooner |first1=Steven |last2=Swan |first2=Collin |date=2012-01-01 |title=Dead Contractors: The Un-Examined Effect of Surrogates on the Public's Casualty Sensitivity |journal=GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works}}</ref>
===UN mercenary report===
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=== ASIS Commission on Standards ===
Founded in 1955, [[American Society for Industrial Security]] (ASIS) is a society of individual security professionals dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and productivity of security professionals by developing educational programs and materials. ASIS is an [[ANSI]]-accredited Standards Developing Organization, and within ASIS, the ASIS Commission on Standards and Guidelines works with national and international standards-setting organizations and industry representatives to develop voluntary standards and guidelines for security professionals. With funding from the US Department of Defense, the ASIS Commission on Standards is currently promulgating four sets of standards for private security companies.<ref name="psm.du.edu">{{Cite web |last=Denver |first=University of |title=ANSI/ASIS Standards – Private Security Monitor – University of Denver |url=http://psm.du.edu/industry_initiatives/asis_international.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019025718/http://psm.du.edu/industry_initiatives/asis_international.html |archive-date=19 October 2017 |access-date=6 May 2018 |website=psm.du.edu}}</ref>
==See also==
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* [[Company police]]
* [[Private army]]
* [[Defense contractor]]
* [[LOGCAP]]
* [[Personal Security Detachment]]
* [[Private defense agency]]
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* Arnold, Guy. ''Mercenaries: The Scourge of the Third World.'' [[Palgrave Macmillan]], 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-312-22203-1}}
* Deborah D. Avant. ''The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security''. George Washington University, August 2005. {{ISBN|0-521-61535-6}}
*[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002718824394 Deborah D. Avant and
*Brillstein, Arik: ''Antiterrorsystem.'' Engel Publishing 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022105803/http://www.humansecurity.info/#/vol-63-brooks-rathgeber/4527827401 Brooks, Doug/ Rathgeber, Shawn Lee: The Industry Role in Regulating Private Security Companies, in: Canadian Consortium on Human Security - Security Privatization: Challenges and Opportunities, Vol. 6.3, University of British Columbia, March 2008.]
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