From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies by Simon Chesterman and Chia Lehnardt (eds)
| Author | Mark Devane |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00728_5.x |
| Published date | 01 November 2008 |
| Date | 01 November 2008 |
experience in this area will determine the extent towhich this book may assist in
the quest for truly better regulation throughout the EU.
Sara-Louise Khabazia n
n
Simon Chesterman and Chia Lehnardt (eds), From Mercenaries to Market: The
Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies,Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007, xx þ287pp, hb d60.00.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused increased attention to be paid to
Private Military Companies (PMCs). The more hysterical commentary has
tended to focus on the alleged misdeeds of PMCs such as Blackwater and CACI
in Abu Ghraib, while much of the academic literature has looked at de¢nitional
issues: whether these companies are mercenaries or represent something distinct
from traditional hired soldiers. From Mercenaries to Market addresses governance
issues and strives to create a ‘realistic approach to regulation that addresses
both the problems of unaccountable actors wielding potentially lethal force
and the i nterests of the consumers and suppliers of an i ncreasingly es tablished
industry’ (2).
The truth is that PMCs (much like mercenaries before them) cross many dis-
cipliniary ¢elds, touching oneconomics, national law, military studies and inter-
national law.The success of From Mercenaries to Market lies in the fact that this truth
is acknowledged and embraced by editors and authors alike.The book requires a
commitment not just to reading aspects of the rules on state responsibility with
regard to PMCs (Lehnardt), but also to the nature of supply and demand (Avant),
detailed national legislation (Caparini) and security sector reform (Krahmann).
But this commitment is well rewarded.
The book is divided into four sections re£ecting the wide-ranging nature of
the book: Concerns, Challenges, Norms and Markets.‘Concerns’ addresses many
of the issues covered by other leading books on the subject: the di¡erences
between mercenaries and PMCs; civil-military relationships; and an assessment
of the industry and its activities. Sarah Percy examines why, despite some strong
factual di¡erences between mercenaries and PMCs, both still experience similar
objections. Moral objections imply, however, that there is something inherently
wrong with PMCs speci¢cally, a view which tends to lead to an abolitionist
stance. But th is book adopts a regulatory approach, building from an assessment
of the di¡erence between the activities of PMCs and mercenaries. Kevin O’Brien
argues that too muchattention has been paid to‘atypical, but high-pro¢le compa-
nies’ (29) and examines instead the broad spectrum of PMC activities in order
provide a clear basis for a regulatoryapproach.The system of regulation he advo-
cates focuses on theactivities performed rather thanthe actor who performs them,
since the lines between his four categories of PMC/private actors (mercenaries,
private armies, private security companies and private military companies) often
n
School of Law,University of Warwick.
Reviews
104 6 r2008 The Author.Journal Compilation r20 08 TheModern Law Review Limited.
(2008) 71(6) 1032^1049
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