The private military and security contractors in armed conflicts under international humanitarian law

Hani Albasoos,Musallam Al Maashani

doi:10.20525/ijrbs.v9i3.653

Abstract

The participation of private and military contractors in armed conflicts is the contemporary phenomenon that concerned policymakers and military strategists, particularly Russian contractors. This phenomenon attracts most politicians to set up initiatives and to draw international guidelines to all concerned parties. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the condition of Russian private military and security companies (PMSCs) in recent armed conflicts. The research is based on the realism approach, which will help explain Russian state behavior towards PMSCs, while the neoliberalism approach will help to explore this phenomenon from the Russian economic perspective. This research applies inductive, exploratory, and qualitative approaches, which solely based on secondary resources and media contents. The main finding of this research shows that those contractors have obligations under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), but the only limitation is the state’s obligation to endorse them. Besides, it seems that an international treaty between countries could be a practical step towards having a useful regulatory framework.

Highlights

The usage of private military and security contractors in armed conflicts has attracted international attention in the last decade due to the significant increase in the use of these firms by different states, especially the United States and Russia (Christiansen,2010)
The main finding of this research leads to the strategic importance of Russia's private and military contractors in the armed conflict to the Russian military institutions, since the current status of legal vacuum regarding private military and security companies (PMSCs) allowed Russia to serve their national interest overseas indirectly
In the Syrian conflict, these private military firms had been seen in the battle two years in advance before the Russian government officially engaged in 2015 (Doswald-Beck, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

The usage of private military and security contractors in armed conflicts has attracted international attention in the last decade due to the significant increase in the use of these firms by different states, especially the United States and Russia (Christiansen,2010). Privatization has led to growing concerns about the accountability and regulation of these contracting companies under international humanitarian law, especially as many contracting companies have expanded their business into conflicts in the battlefields rather than providing support services to government forces. In this regard, states assert that private military and security companies (PMSCs) staff are civilian contractors while a minority community deals with PMSCs as groups of criminal mercenaries.

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Conclusion