MENACING DIMENSIONS OF PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY ENTITIES

Abstract

Private military and security entities (PMSEs) are commercially organised non-governmental bodies engaged in the provision of services entailing armed fighting. The concept of employing these entities has been practised since antiquity. Their evolution is owed to the belief that they have the capability to augment the state’s security structures and enhance its capacity to project power. Because of their recently developed capability to undertake diversified activities, including clandestine functions, the trend to use these entities across the globe has expanded in the last couple of decades. It is also believed that better efficiency and economy can be achieved by outsourcing non-core military activities to the private sector. Another recent development that has altered the character of some PMSEs is their transformation into corporate entities with well-defined hierarchical structures, sophisticated business practices and globalised operations which have given them the potential to affect international security and interstate relations. By virtue of that, they have become an effective instrument of foreign policy. However, being external to the established state structures of security governance these entities pose multifaceted challenges for traditional security systems with ramifications for national and international security. The concept facilitates the development of private power at the cost of state power and contradicts the realist assumption that the state as a unitary actor, which holds a central position in the global political order, must retain a monopoly on the means of violence. Therefore, they need to be properly regulated and integrated into the state structures lest their potential to undermine the existing security structures exceeds their positive contribution.

Bibliography Entry

Arshad, Dr Muhammad. 2022. "Menacing Dimensions of Private Military and Security Entities." NDU Journal 36: 1-16.