The political, legal and military implications of outsourcing to private military companies. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 15, November 2010

摘要

Recurrent and systematic underinvestment(or inadequate management)results in capability shortfalls, that canonly be compensated by ‘outsourcing’to Private Military Companies. Whilethe use of private companies forcorporate or logistic functions might bemanageable, complementary andlegitimate, outsour-cing inherentlygovernmental functions as the use offorce to hired guns inevitably leads tolegal, military and political issues. Evenwith an adequate managementstructure, not all military functions canbe privatized, since activities orfunctions linked with the state’smonopoly on the (authorised) use offorce as well as core military missioncriticalfunctions should be bannedfrom privatization.Assuredly, Defence & Security investmentsdeserve a better outcome thankeeping the balance sheets of privatecompanies in the green: critical awarenessand an independent knowledgebase on the good, the bad and the uglyof hiring Private Military Companiescan make the difference for our future(austere) defence budgets between proactiveinvestments in the provision ofpublic security or compelled recourse toprivate capabilities.