Private military companies, or PMCs, appeared many years ago. Guarding convoys, training the armed forces, complex military operations – PMCs came to the rescue when the government and the regular army could not or did not want to solve the problem on their own.
For their mercenaries, war, as always before, is a business, although sometimes in the entourage of ideology and romance.
Soldiers of fortune
The profession of a hired warrior appeared in ancient times. “Soldiers of fortune”, as they would be called today, were hired by ancient Greek rulers and Egyptian pharaohs. In Europe, they flourished in the 15th-18th centuries – then not every monarch was able to maintain a regular army, and the need for it appeared often. In the 19th century, the spread of the conscription army concept left the mercenaries with little space in the war, but did not completely outlive them. For example, in 1856, the American mercenary William Walker even managed to seize power in Nicaragua for a year and rule the country as president.
The real mercenary renaissance began at the height of the Cold War, when the world was divided into two camps and at the same time shackled by numerous UN treaties and restrictions. The precedent was the Congo Crisis of 1960–1965, when mercenaries played a prominent role in the war.
The once wealthy Republic of the Congo plunged into chaos after declaring independence from Belgium. Most of the state was mired in conflicts motivated by racism, the system of government was destroyed, the authorities of one of the provinces – Katanga – announced their secession from the state. Mercenaries from neighboring Rhodesia came to the aid of the white government of Katanga. “Unofficial soldiers” were recruited as quietly as possible, through advertisements in newspapers. Later, after the removal of a single anti-Western government led by Patrice Lumumba, the mercenaries found themselves on the other side of the barricades and fought against local separatists. They fought effectively, albeit sordidly – the atrocities that cost the lives of hundreds of Belgians, too, went hand in hand with victories in battle.
The political atmosphere of those years prompted the founder of the British SAS special forces, David Stirling, to create the British company WatchGuard International in 1967. Although today WatchGuard is considered the first PMC of the modern type, its services were initially limited to troop training and security advice. In the early 70s, Stirling’s company, at the initiative of the British authorities, prepared a plan to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. True, it was not destined to bring it to life, and soon after its cancellation, WatchGuard closed.
But the standards had already been set: Keenie Meenie Services, Control Risks Group and other PMCs soon appeared.
Among the shadows
Although private military companies are not a new phenomenon, they are still in a gray area for international treaties and the laws of many countries.
For example, the term “PMC” itself requires clarification – is it possible to call a “military” company whose personnel does not directly take part in hostilities? An organization may provide military logistics, advise on strategic planning, maintain complex weapons, or train soldiers, but not go to the battlefield. Among PMCs, it is customary to call themselves “security” companies, that is, PSCs, for a public emphasis on defensive activities.
In December 1989, the UN Convention against the Recruitment, Training and Use of Mercenaries was adopted. And in 2008, Switzerland and 17 other states agreed on the so-called Monreux Document, which clarifies the concept of private military security companies (PMSCs), the obligations of states to investigate their actions, and the rights of their employees. But only Switzerland made changes to the legislation on the recommendations of this document.
In the UK – the homeland of WatchGuard and other well-known organizations – there are no mentions of PMCs in the legislation, but there are acts regulating their activities. In the United States, the legal status of these companies was dealt with in 2004: they finalized the legislation to clarify the concept of PMCs, and created an institution for licensing organizations.
Finally, mercenarism is formally prohibited in Russia, but such a concept as PMCs simply does not exist in the legislation. That is, organizations of this type are still “in the shadows”.
“Glorious” victories
Given the “gray” status of PMCs, it is customary to treat them with distrust. In addition, several scandals tarnished the reputation of the mercenaries, the most famous of which are associated with the American Blackwater.
This company was founded in 1998 by ex-military Eric Prince as a military shooting training center. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the events that followed convinced Prince to turn Blackwater into a full-fledged PMC. In 2003, for security activities in Iraq, in a military situation, the organization received armored vehicles, MD-530 Little Bird helicopters, and heavy firearms. In effect, the US administration in Iraq was guarded by a small private army.
On March 31, 2004, in Fallujah, four Blackwater employees died while delivering food for ESS. The mercenaries were blown up in the car, the survivors were dragged out into the street, beaten and burned. Their bodies were hung on a bridge across the Euphrates River. In response, the US Army launched an “Operation of Retaliation” known as the First Battle of Fallujah. The parties differ in their estimates of further losses of the warring parties, but no one disputes the death of more than 500 civilians.
Another incident with Blackwater occurred on September 16, 2007. This time, the employees of the company “dispersed”, and in earnest. They staged “indiscriminate shooting” in the central square of Baghdad, which killed 17 people and injured 20 more. According to the PMC, the employees were ambushed and defended themselves, according to the American court of those years, they staged a massacre that claimed the lives of the innocent. According to employees, a tense atmosphere prevailed in the region – on the eve of the incident, a car bomb was blown up at the meeting place of Iraqi and American officials. In 2020, four guilty PMC employees were pardoned by President Trump, which drew condemnation from UN experts for “violating US obligations under international law and human rights at the global level.”
After the incident, the United States revoked Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq (though only for a week) and signed a contract with another PMC. The company was then at the peak of development: its turnover for 2008 amounted to tens of millions of dollars. For a long time, Blackwater management tried to “wash off” a bad reputation – for this, the company name was changed first to Xe, and then to Academi. Blackwater left Iraq, but did not lose the contracts and exists to this day.
An example of a “good” PMC is often referred to as the South African Executive Outcomes. Founded in 1989 by South African Defense Force veteran Luther Eben Barlow, Executive Outcomes initially trained Angolan troops to fight UNITA insurgents. The piquancy of the situation was given by the fact that before the members of the Angolan organization fought together with the South Africans against the local socialist forces, and Angola itself had been one of the regions of South Africa several decades earlier.
Despite the keen interest of the state authorities, Luther Barlow’s organization helped the Angolan army to conduct several effective and military operations and create good publicity for itself. In the wake of its success, Executive Outcomes has trained soldiers from all over the continent: from Algeria and Zambia, Madagascar and Botswana. The South African government put an end to its history. EO leaders tried to negotiate with South Africa to clarify the legal status and legalization of PMCs. Indeed, the authorities made appropriate amendments to the legislation, banning mercenary activities, recruitment and training of mercenaries. As a result, Executive Outcomes was liquidated, although it became a successful historical example for organizations created later.
Despite all the controversy around the very idea of PMCs, organizations are developing and regularly find orders for themselves. The Canadian GardaWorld provided security services to Western embassies before the coup in Afghanistan, even if this turned out to be some problems for its employees (some of them were simply “forgotten” during the evacuation). For many, another proof of the prospects of PMCs was the result of the actions of the Wagner company during the NWO. While human rights activists continue to discuss responsibility for mercenary activities, PMCs are evolving and working to maximize their profits in the turbulent years ahead.