Instead, they are fueled by personal gain. They are essentially freelance soldiers who fight a war between states purely for money. One is legal, and the other is not depending on the context. PMCs work for private military companies. Both PMCs and mercenaries work for money. However, the difference between the two lies in whom they work for and how they operate. Mercenaries are essentially individual soldiers who can be hired by whoever pays them.
PMCs, on the other hand, are recruited into an organization the private military company that serves as the intermediary between the professional soldiers they employ and the governments that seek their services.
A large number of the PMCs who work for private security companies are ex-army soldiers or ex-members of a national police force, who have the necessary training and experience required for their line of work.
Unlike mercenaries whose resources are limited to light arms, PMCs have access to more complex and heavier military artillery like planes, helicopters, tanks, and sophisticated firearms. Another glaring difference between the two is the scope of work they can undertake.
Mercenaries are typically deployed to frontline combat. PMCs working for security companies, on the other hand, can work in several other areas, including gathering intelligence, providing logistics and transportation services for high-value assets, and even providing executive protection for targeted high-risk individuals. Both mercenaries and PMCs wear a mix of special operation uniforms and casual civilian attire depending on the context of their operations.
The International Convention made the recruitment, use, training, and financing of mercenaries illegal. It also forbids the recruitment of people to fight in an armed conflict or for private gain.
According to the convention, any individual who is not a member of any armed force that is a party to the conflict is considered a mercenary.
It further stipulates that all states should consider mercenary activity an offense for which the individual in question ought to be prosecuted or, at the very least, extradited.
However, the United Nations Mercenary Convention, which came into force in October , was ratified by only 35 countries. So, as to whether mercenaries are legal or not? The answer to this is — it depends on the country in question. Additionally, if a professional soldier is hired by a sovereign nation to fight for them, then they are legal to that country. Many countries prefer to enlist the services of PMCs for several reasons.
The took part in combat operations against Japanese forces and received approximately three times more pay than while on active duty and were commonly referred to as mercenaries.
The Flying Tigers would see service through July when they were replaced by the U. Army 23 rd Fighter Group. Today, the mercenary trade has evolved to primarily being headed by private military companies PMCs. These companies specialize in providing soldiers, military training, logistics, and other services to governments, civil organizations, and international communities. They are legally established companies or enterprises that make money through providing services that rely on legal use of armed force, intelligence gathering, logistics support, or equipment procurement.
Although PMCs fill a critical security void throughout the world in a time of austere national budgets, the United Nations continues to officially disapprove of their use ignoring the fact the UN has previously hired the company, Executive Outcomes for logistics work in Africa. The primary argument for using PMCs is that they help stabilize areas across the world where the UN or other coalitions are unable or not yet willing to intervene to save civilian lives.
Both countries have not signed the accord. The majority of classic mercenary-like jobs on the market today typically require past military or law enforcement experience. Even better, is previous experience working in the special forces of the army, USMC, navy, or air force if seeking the higher paying security-related jobs available on the market. For example, if you want to be a security consultant, then service as a MP in the U.
Army would provide the proper experience where signing up to be chemical warfare specialist may not be applicable to many of the available jobs in the mercenary market. If you only speak English, taking the time to develop a skill set in another commonly spoken language such as French, German, Arabic, Russian, or Spanish will help make you more attractive to future employers in merc or contract security related work.
Better yet, if you know what area of the world that you want to obtain employment, start learning at least basic language skills for that region. A popular learning resource for mercenaries looking to pick up basic to intermediate language skills is the Rosetta Stone. The Fallujah ambush exposed a lapse in the security that Blackwater was supposed to have provided its employees.
The list goes on. In , a group of Blackwater operatives opened fire on a busy Iraqi city centre, killing 17 civilians. The Nisour Square killings provoked a backlash, stoked a debate over whether contracting wars was successful and whether the mechanisms in place for accountability were enough when such incidents occur. The Prado report explains how governments and their various arms use contracted security and former military personnel to sidestep political constraints and use force in other countries.
PMCs have become a popular option for the US government, having evolved into a monopsony with America being one of the main buyers. The loss of lives in conflicts such as the World Wars or the eponymous Vietnam War has pushed nations to minimise the loss of life of their own troops by hiring PMCs to fight their wars for them.
Mission creep means the gradual expansion of a military operation, usually resulting in a long-term project. The US contracted 10 percent of its forces during World War 2 but this number increased fivefold during the wars it fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
PMCs are also a popular option outside the US. Many countries, including individuals, use them to circumnavigate legal limits or scrutiny.
The UAE's participation in the conflict has drawn international outrage over war crimes and devastating impact on civilian lives. The same group has been hired by Israel to provide security in Palestine. Not many people have heard about how British aristocrats were implicated in a scandal involving the hiring of Logo Logistics , a British-South African PMC, to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government - for profit.
PMCs just make it that much easier for a government or individual to hire a specialist group to do the dirty work. As hiring PMCs can widen the breadth of parties involved, things get more complicated. There would be a bidding war for the loyalty of the force, something I saw warlords do in Africa. While the scope of private military and security contractors expands, regulatory laws lag behind. A UN panel in noted these glaring gaps. It sought to implement an international monitoring mechanism among other recommendations; a draft convention that never materialised.
Under the protocol and the Geneva Convention, mercenaries do not come under the protectorate of the Geneva convention. But the same articles which define mercenaries do not capture PMCs. So, accountability occurs on a case by case basis. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for all latest in-depth, on the ground reporting from around the world.
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