External Interventions and Civil Wars: Why Focus on Non-State Actors?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Seden Akcinaroglu ◽  
Elizabeth Radziszewski
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
External Interventions ◽  
Security Companies

Existing research on the impact of external interventions into civil wars focuses mostly on states and international organizations. With the expansion of private military and security companies’ (PMSCs) presence in civil wars, there is a need to better understand the impact of such non-state actors on conflict dynamics. This chapter highlights the importance of understanding conditions under which PMSCs are more militarily effective in conflict zones, describes the existing focus in the study of PMSCs, and introduces a new theoretical focus that links variation in market competition to military effectiveness. It addresses previous data in the study of PMSCs and focuses on the benefits of new data, with specific focus on international PMSCs’ presence in major and minor civil wars.

Private Militaries and the Security Industry in Civil Wars

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seden Akcinaroglu ◽  
Elizabeth Radziszewski
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Conflict Termination ◽  
Military Services

Whether they train police forces in Afghanistan or provide military assistance to governments in Africa that are battling rebel groups, private military and security companies (PMSCs), or corporations that provide security and military services for profit, have been present in numerous conflicts around the globe. In 1984 only one international PMSC intervened in a civil war; in 1989 there were 15 international PMSCs present in conflict zones, while from 2003 to 2019 over 120 of such companies provided services during the Iraq war. Why do international PMSCs sometimes help with conflict termination while in other cases their intervention is associated with prolonged wars? And in what ways does market competition affect PMSCs’ military effectiveness? Relying on quantitative analysis of original data on international PMSCs’ involvement in civil wars from 1990 to 2008 and PMSCs’ human rights and fraud violations in Iraq from 2003 to 2019, the book investigates how local and global competition impacts accountability of these non-state actors and their contribution to the termination of major and minor wars.

Lex PPPs as a source of regulation of cross-border relations in the sphere of public-private partnership and the role of international organizations in formation of Lex PPPs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Svetlana Valentinovna Maslova
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Public Private Partnership ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Private Partnership ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Impact

Modern international and cross-border relations in the sphere of public-private partnership (PPP) undergo transformations caused by globalization processes, which leads to the amendments in their legal regulation. The impact of non-state actors increases. Although the toolset for influencing cross-border relations in the sphere of PPP retains its legal core, it is being extended by the rules established by non-state actors outside the international and national legal systems, and carry no legal weight. For PPP as a form of interaction between the state and private investment and business structures, such transformations are particularly noticeable and require precise legal qualification. The scientific novelty of this research consists in providing definition in the international legal doctrine to Lex PPPs as the regulator of cross-border relations in the sphere of public-private partnership. Based on the dialectical, logical, and formal-legal methods, assessment is given to the role of international organizations in the formation of Lex PPPs. In conclusion, the author clarifies the role of Lex PPPs within the system of regulators of public-private partnership, namely that it should not expel the legal regulation of cross-border relations in the sphere of public-private partnership; as well as offers to seek for the new forms of correlation between international law and Lex PPPs and their consolidation through the international legal regulation of public-private partnership.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs), Military Effectiveness, and Conflict Severity in Weak States, 1990–2007

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1046-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Petersohn
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Related Services ◽  
Common View ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Security Companies

For more than two decades, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have become increasingly involved in armed conflicts. A common view is that PMSCs are menaces who simply take economic advantage of—and thereby aggravate—already bad situations. Yet, empirical research has rarely investigated these claims or the impact of commercial actors’ selling force-related services. This article investigates how PMSCs impact the severity of armed conflict in weak states and advances the argument that PMSC services increase the client’s military effectiveness. In turn, increased military effectiveness translates into increased conflict severity, the extent of which depends on type of service provided by the PMSC, the level of competition on the market, and oversight.

Market Factors and PMSCs’ Effectiveness in Conflict Termination

2020 ◽  
pp. 135-160
Author(s):  
Seden Akcinaroglu ◽  
Elizabeth Radziszewski
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Corporate Structure ◽  
Publicly Traded ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Market Factors ◽  
Conflict Termination ◽  
Positive Effect

This chapter presents the results of empirical analysis of local and global competition’s impact on PMSCs’ performance in civil wars from 1990 to 2008. Findings suggest that both market mechanisms contribute to conflict termination, but there is some limitation to the benefit. Mainly, local competition has a positive effect in major wars involving conventional tactics and some guerrilla warfare but is less significant in the most difficult conflict environments. Companies’ corporate structure, a factor linked to the global-competition dynamic, can affect military effectiveness in conflicts involving fewer casualties and more guerrilla warfare. The positive effect is also evident in hard-to-end conflicts but not the subset of the most complex environments, as publicly traded PMSCs may strategically avoid the most extreme conflict zones. Finally, results show that interventions by multiple PMSCs offer more benefits for conflict termination than interventions involving states or international organizations.

28. Non-state actors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
State Actor ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Impact

This chapter first explains how the term ‘non-state actor’ is used and why it is appropriate to look at the impact of non-state actors on the enjoyment of human rights, and then recalls the ‘positive obligations’ of states to protect those within their jurisdiction from abuses by non-state actors. Finally, it considers the human rights obligations of different non-state actors: international organizations, corporations, and armed non-state actors. The chapter identifies three challenges posed by non-state actors. First, is finding ways to translate existing norms to create appropriate obligations for non-state actors; second is developing monitoring and accountability mechanisms; and third is questioning assumptions about what it means to talk about human rights and who has human rights obligations.

scholarly journals THE EFFICIENCY OF THE USE OF PRIVATE MILITARY SECURITY COMPANIES (PMSC) BY THE UNITED STATES IN IRAQ

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raviq Ayusi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Services ◽  
The Us ◽  
Military Security ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Security Companies

The shift of security paradigm post-cold war era has made the concept of security more complex, regarding the actor and its scope. The security dynamic trigger the emergence of new non-state actors in the security field. Private Military Security Companies (PMSC) is one of a non-state actors that provides security services. The United States as a developed country makes use of this service not only during wartime but also on other certain condition. The choice of using PMSC services is considered to have greater efficiency than the use of state military.How efficient can the United States get by hiring the PMSC? Based on the analysis, this paper argues that the US efficiency by hiring the PMSC is quite high because of the ability of the US to see the conditions, taking into account further and minimize the impact that would come. This paper will outline through three components: international security governance, the efficient use of PMSC services, and the consideration more about the impact of the use of PMSC services.

Incentivizing Peace

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
East Timor ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Tools ◽  
The Impact

Civil wars are one of the most pressing problems facing the world. Common approaches such as mediation, intervention, and peacekeeping have produced some results in managing ongoing civil wars, but they fall short in preventing civil wars in the first place. This book argues for considering civil wars from a developmental perspective to identify steps to assure that nascent, low-level armed conflicts do not escalate to full-scale civil wars. We show that highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs, e.g. the World Bank or IMF) are particularly well positioned to engage in civil war prevention. Such organizations have both an enduring self-interest in member-state peace and stability and potent (economic) tools to incentivize peaceful conflict resolution. The book advances the hypothesis that countries that belong to a larger number of highly structured IGOs face a significantly lower risk that emerging low-level armed conflicts on their territories will escalate to full-scale civil wars. Systematic analyses of over 260 low-level armed conflicts that have occurred around the globe since World War II provide consistent and robust support for this hypothesis. The impact of a greater number of memberships in highly structured IGOs is substantial, cutting the risk of escalation by over one-half. Case evidence from Indonesia’s East Timor conflict, Ivory Coast’s post-2010 election crisis, and from the early stages of the conflict in Syria in 2011 provide additional evidence that memberships in highly structured IGOs are indeed key to understanding why some low-level armed conflicts escalate to civil wars and others do not.

Bridging the Accountability Gap in the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons: Non-State Actors Under the Kampala Convention

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Romola Adeola
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
African Union ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Regional Landscape ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Accountability Gap ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Contemporary forms of internal displacement in Africa significantly reflect the emerging footprints of non-state actors on the regional landscape of internal displacement. In recognition of the impact of these actors in the internal displacement context, the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) specifically obligate states to regulate them in the prevention of arbitrary displacement. This is the central thrust of this article. This article examines the Kampala Convention from the perspective of non-state actors, considering the obligation of the state and the extent to which these actors may be held accountable, in the furtherance of protection and assistance of internally displaced persons (IDP s).

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