GA1-The Role of Private Military and Security Companies in Conflict

The emergence and rapid growth of private military companies (PMCs) and private security companies (PSCs) in the 1990s followed from the downsizing of the armed forces in many countries in the aftermath of the Cold War and from the development of many new conflicts which increased the demand for military manpower and expertise. The redefinition of security strategies and the restructuring of armed forces by Western governments resulted in the elimination of non-core activities from many armed forces. These have increasingly been filled through various forms of alternative service delivery, in particular outsourcing to PMCs and PSCs.

PSCs are companies that specialize in providing security and protection of personnel and property, including humanitarian and industrial assets. PMCs are private companies that specialize in military skills, including combat operations, strategic planning, intelligence collection, operational support, logistics, training, procurement and maintenance of arms and equipment. Most PMCs and PSCs serve governments and the armed forces, working for dictators, regimes of failing states, organized crime, drug cartels, and terrorist-linked groups but also for the UN, NGOs, and even environmental groups.


In recent years, such specialized private companies have dramatically changed the role of the state by ending the longstanding state monopoly in the application of force. However questions over the legal status of such companies and issues surrounding civil-military relations have arisen, in addition to other problems. It is important to address the role played by these companies. Currently, the United Nations has done little to tackle these issues, which makes it all the more important to address them.