EU Operations and Private Military Contractors: Issues of Corporate and Institutional Responsibility

Abstract

The European Union has developed its security competence since 1992, thus putting pressure on its Member States to provide troops for the increasing number of EU peace operations being deployed to different areas of the globe. But with national militaries being rationalized and contracted the EU will inevitably follow the lead of the US, the UK, and the UN and start to use Private Military Contractors to undertake some of the functions of peace operations. This article explores the consequences of this trend from the perspective of the accountability and responsibility of both the corporation and the institution when the employees of PMCs commit violations of human rights law and, if applicable, international humanitarian law.

The EU’s Maritime Security Strategy: a Neo-Medieval Perspective on the Limits of Soft Security?

“…This is less a question of private navies and security contractors at sea, but more likely the less-controversial providers of drones, imagery, logistics, and other types of support. This trend is already evident for land operations, and the neo-medieval approach would expect it to grow in the maritime domain as well (Gould 2015;White and Macleod 2008).…”

In from the cold? Self-legitimating the market for private security

“…Authors have argued that some of the flaws regarding accountability stem not from the shortage of legal measures, but rather from the difficulties faced by regulators when trying to use or adapt these measures (Leander 2012), or from the lack of precision in these measures, meaning that they fail to encompass the whole spectrum of services that PMSCs offer (Isenberg 2004). Faced with what most observers have regarded as unsatisfactory legal accountability, a considerable number of studies have debated innovations or changes to existing legal measures that would allow PMSCs to better be held accountable for their actions (Singer 2004, Holmqvist 2005, Kinsey 2006, Krahmann 2006, Perrin 2006, O'Brien 2007, Caparini 2007, White and MacLeod 2008, Cockayne et al 2009, Brooks 2007, Faite 2004, Avant 2007aand b, Ronzitti and Francioni 2011.…”