Private Military Companies: Mercenaries for the 21st Century

The last decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of private military companies, organized as international corporations and providing military services for hire. This development has been greeted with something close to loathing by various political entities and international actors, notably some elements of the United Nations. These entities and actors regard the rise of business-like military service providers as an aberration and a danger to peace and stability. Some commentators regard them as possible threats to the dominance of nation-states. This article contends that such corporations are an accommodation to the reality of the Post-Cold War world, generally act in the interests of states, present little danger to even weak states and, for the most part, contribute to stability rather than threaten it.