Project on Private Military and Security Companies
About the Project...
Private Military Companies play an increasingly significant role in military affairs. Their emergence as important actors in armed conflicts and as security providers in unstable states raises questions about the role of the nation state as the primary military actor.
The IILJ Project aims to help develop a normative framework for private military companies’ (PMC) operations that will form the context for private engagements in states at risk. A key strategy of the project is to include all stakeholders in the discussions, in order to ensure practical relevance and to advance discussions beyond the polarized and unhelpful approach of utopians condemning PMCs as mercenaries and thus as inherently unlawful and apologists defending a regime that turns a blind eye to the ambiguous legal position that PMCs occupy. Importantly, this includes individuals from consumer states whose perspectives are often overlooked in the creation of standards.
The project is organized into two research streams: (i) identifying principles governing the use and conduct of PMCs and (ii) addressing the regulatory theory underpinning models of regulation of private actors performing public functions with a view to informing and strengthening the principles governing PMCs.
Publications
Greentree Notes on Regulating the Private Military Sector.
Simon Chesterman and Chia Lehnardt (eds.) From Mercenaries to Markets: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Table of Contents and select chapters are available here.
Working Paper Series
Working Paper 2007/2: Chia Lehnardt, Private military companies and state responsibility
