Military.inc

This month I was reading an excellent article from the Economist reporting on the role of Private Military Companies (essentially mercenaries) in Syria. The more I’ve delved into the issue, the more tangled it becomes. Mercenaries are becoming increasingly prevalent across the world during late modern history, from conducting counter insurgency and piracy in Somalia to staging coups in Central Africa. By the end of the Second Gulf War, private military personnel outnumbered the national militaries. Especially concerning are the accusations levelled against contractors over potential unlawful killings in war zones which forced one of the largest contemporary companies: Blackwater to cease operations in the region and rebrand. Under intense pressure and scrutiny, the CEO and owner Erik Prince stepped down and sold the company.

In 2004, backed by British financiers including Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann is alleged to have led a group of mercenaries into Equatorial Guinea with the intention of deposing the government and securing oil rights for their western backers. Even during the current conflict in Syria, Wagner, a private paramilitary organisation has been operating largely as an extension of the military providing job opportunities for thousands of young Russian adventurists. Wagner also reportedly operated in the Crimea alongside separatist forces. Alongside reports of Chinese private military companies protecting national interests, it seems that many States are increasingly employing the non-state actors of private military companies to pursue essentially neo-colonialist and geo-strategic objectives in theatres as diverse as Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Indeed so many south Africans were emigrating to fight against Alongside this there are also private sponsors of military ventures for ideological reasons or personal gain.

Contemplating this has led me to the conclusion that this is something I would like to base my project around. The concept of corporations operating outside the traditional state system and control of national government whilst exerting very real physical power is both exciting and presents a great deal of issues. Furthermore, private companies with the capabilities of a nation state operating across borders seems to me like an issue custom made for the transnational historical approach.

In undertaking this project there are a variety of new skills which I would like to explore and develop. I think it could be potentially very useful to map the theatres in which these companies have been acknowledged to operate against the country of their origin to see the correlation between states’ geo-strategic objectives and private military companies operations. This would help in both seeing why there is a large growth in the use of military companies as well as seeing to what extent nations in contrast to private employers are the main proponents of the private sector. I also would like to asses the origins of these military companies, what motivates people to fight for companies rather than their national armies? Where do their skillsets come from? I’d welcome feedback, suggestions and thoughts on how I could further apply transnational ideas and the transnational model to this area!