Private Armed Forces and Global Security: A Guide to the Issues (Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues)

268 Pages·2010·0.92 MB·English

by  Carlos Ortiz

Private Armed Forces and Global Security
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Private Armed Forces and
Global Security
A Guide to the Issues
Carlos Ortiz
Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues
Copyright 2010 by Carlos Ortiz
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for
the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ortiz, Carlos.
Private armed forces and global security : a guide to the issues / Carlos Ortiz.
p. cm. — (Contemporary military, strategic, and security issues)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-35592-9 (print : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35593-6
(ebook) 1. Private military companies—History—21st century. 2. Private military
companies—History—20th century. 3. Security, International—History—
21st century. 4. Security, International—History—20th century. I. Title.
U240.O785 2010
355.3'5—dc22 2009046663
ISBN: 978-0-313-35592-9
EISBN: 978-0-313-35593-6
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
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For
my parents
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Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Private Forces in Historical Perspective 12
Chapter 3 Private Military Companies and Adverse Private Forces 42
Chapter 4 Confl ict Environments and Private Forces 77
Chapter 5 The Privatization of Security: Approaches and Issues 114
Chapter 6 Conclusions 150
Appendix I World Map 163
Appendix II Actors 167
Appendix III Documents 197
Selected Bibliography 215
Index 227
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Preface
Private military companies (PMCs) and global trends toward the privatiza-
tion of security fi rst attracted my attention in the early 1990s. Back then, I
used to mention PMCs and people thought I was maybe an arms dealer dis-
guised as an academic. Times have changed. Now almost everyone has a view
about private personnel working in confl ict zones. By 1996 I was formally
researching the subject, which eventually led to a PhD and various related
presentations and publications. I cite some of my earlier work here and take
forward previous arguments.
Throughout this journey, the need for easily accessible material on the sub-
ject has been made patent to me time and again. Moreover, during numerous
conversations held with people of different backgrounds and ages, people’s
desire to learn about all the different types of private armed forces typical of
contemporary confl ict has been made obvious as well. There is also a renewed
impetus to the historical analysis of the private exercise of force. Discussions
have additionally been directed toward the outlining of paths to the study
of PMCs. This rich dialogue engendered my desire to write this book and
informed the structure of its contents.
In the course of my research, I have become indebted to countless people.
Some of them are cited in the book. In a fi eld of scholarly inquiry that has ex-
ploded since the onset of the Iraq confl ict, however, the views of many other
relevant sources have fallen outside the scope of the analysis. Nevertheless, I
believe the book plants the seeds for any interested reader to pursue alterna-
tive avenues of study and discover the many fascinating titles documenting
the study of PMCs and adverse private forces. I sincerely hope this will make
up for my failure to acknowledge specifi c works and exchanges I have sus-
tained over the years with many authors.