Weak governments in search of strength

Abstract

Although one of the main concerns with PMCs today is that they constitute a threat to the state's monopoly of violence, the involvement of PMC Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone and Angola in the mid-1990s tells a different story. The firm is credited with supporting governments challenged by powerful rebel groups and reconfirming the state's control by temporarily questioning it. This use of PMCs points to a shift in the role of private military forces in Africa, though their support came at a hefty price. Contrary to the frequent assumption that the African experience of mercenaries and PMCs are aberrations of the past, this chapter demonstrates that the problems arising out of private military involvement in African conflicts continue to have implications for the discussion of regulation. It concludes that shifts in political and commercial accountability, rather than legislative action, have been instrumental in the transition from mercenaries to PMCs in Africa.