NON-STATE ACTOR: DEFINING PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Fulloon

This article outlines several categories of Private Military Companies(PMCs) to distinguish between the different military services these organisations provide. In doing so, the article argues that an appropriate category is needed to understand the military operations these companies undertake. The article suggests that the PMCs can be divided into four categories: the Combat Offensive PMC, the Combat Defensive PMC, the Non-Combat Offensive PMC, and finally the Non-Combat Defensive PMC

Author(s):  
Evgeniya Mikhailovna Rogozhina ◽  
Igor' Valer'evich Ryzhov ◽  
Roman Nikolaevich Sokolov

  This article is dedicated to examination of the phenomenon of private military companies as a regional actor of security. Leaning on the analysis of international normative legal documents, the authors derive the definition of private military companies due to the fact that neither academic nor applied spheres have precise understanding of this phenomenon. The key research method is the structural and functional analysis, which allows authors considering the object of study from the perspective of various systems of actors. With the increased demand for private military services, private military companies gradually shift from the category of organizations serving military operations to the category of full-fledged independent military organizations that are capable of fulfilling the functions of regular army. For the past two decades, the market for private military services has grown from $ 55 billion to over $200 billion in 2010. The scientific novelty consists in comprehensive overview of various aspects and trends that take place in the market of private military services, as well as in classification of motives and consequences of usage of private military companies in armed missions. The authors discuss the question of international legal status of private military companies, provide practical examples of their activity with the prolonged consequences for regional systems of international relations, analyze the mechanisms of use of these companies in the current context, as well as synthesize the key factors of the increased demand for their services. The absence of regulation of the work of private military companies and ambiguous status of their employees in international law make it virtually impossible to impose international responsibility upon them.  


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baron L. Savage ◽  
Haning Z. Hughes

Post 9/11 military operations reinforced the reality that the DoD needs a significantly improved capability in non-western European languages and dialects and a surge capacity to expand its language capabilities. As an initial step in the process, in 2005, the DoD produced the Defense Language Transformation Roadmap (DLTR) that directed the military services to coordinate their efforts toward more cohesive and universal goals and objectives (Wolfowitz, 2005). The following article presents a study based on one hundred and forty USAFA cadets who participated in the 2008-2010 Chinese summer language immersion programs conducted at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, and during weekend excursions at prominent historical and cultural locations around the country.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Kukjoo Kim ◽  
Kyung-Ryeung Min ◽  
Young-Jun Park

The Korean peninsula is under increasing threat of electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) from neighboring countries; EMP protection facilities are an essential means of ensuring the operational readiness of the military. However, existing EMP protection facilities are manufactured as fixed-weight structures, which limit the mobility of military operations and lead to the misconception of EMP protection as something only required for higher command. The current military and official EMP protection standards require only a uniform shielding effectiveness of 80 dB. Therefore, this study aims to differentiate the existing uniform level of shielding effectiveness of 80 dB into 80 dB, 60 dB, 40 dB, etc. Further, it seeks to derive the factors to be considered when applying various methods, such as shielding rooms, shielding racks, site redundancy, spare equipment, and portable lightweight protective tents, for recovery of failure, instead of the existing protection facilities that rely on shielded rooms by the Delphi analysis. Then, the applicability of lightweight EMP protection is determined after selecting lightweight materials to build a facility. The electromagnetic shielding performance of 21 types of materials was measured in the 30 MHz–1.5 GHz frequency band using ASTM-D-4935-10. The results showed the possibility of developing a lightweight EMP shielding facility, which would save approximately 316,386 tons of concrete, reducing the CO2 emissions by approximately 9,972,489 tons. Assuming that the Korean carbon transaction price is USD 50/ton CO2, the savings are equivalent to USD 49,862,435.


1843 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. 172-199
Author(s):  
Samuel Charters Maopherson

[Note. Several years ago, at the close of the military operations of the Madras Government in Goomsur, Captain (then Lieutenant) Macpherson executed by order of government a survey of the country, and in that service lost his health. From the Cape of Good Hope, whither he had gone for its recovery, he transmitted his notes on the religion of the Khonds to a relative in this country, who considered them to possess so much novelty and general interest, that he presented them to the Society, upon his own responsibility, and without the sanction of the writer: and a few additions having been since made, the paper is now laid before the public.]


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaël van Steenberghe

Proportionality is a condition provided under both jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Based on a particular interpretation of state practice and international case law, recent legal literature argues that the two notions of proportionality are interrelated in that proportionality under jus in bello is included in the assessment of proportionality under jus ad bellum. This article seeks to refute such a position and, more generally, to clarify the relationship between the two notions of proportionality.The main argument of the article is in line with the traditional position regarding the relationship between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. It is argued that, although sharing common features and being somewhat interconnected, the notions of proportionality provided under these two separate branches of international law remain independent of each other, mainly because of what is referred to in this article as the ‘general versus particular’ dichotomy, which characterises their relations. Proportionality under jus ad bellum is to be measured against the military operation as a whole, whereas proportionality under jus in bello is to be assessed against individual military attacks launched in the framework of this operation.This article nonetheless emphasises the risk of overlap between the assessments of the two notions of proportionality when the use of force involves only one or a few military operations. Indeed, in such situations, the ‘general versus particular’ dichotomy, which normally enables one to make a distinct assessment between the two notions of proportionality, is no longer applicable since it becomes impossible to distinguish between the military operation as a whole and the individual military attacks undertaken during this operation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-225
Author(s):  
Olga Yuryevna Igoshina

This paper considers one of the urgent problems of the great Patriotic war history - the irrevocable human losses during the great Patriotic war. In the 21st century mass sources (electronic databases and databanks) were distributed. Some of them can be used while studying how local people of the Kuibyshev (now - Samara) Region participated in the military operations in 1941-1945. The paper analyzes information opportunities of the generalized databank Memorial and the consolidated database of the all-Russian information and search center Fatherland. The paper also analyzes the electronic database of the irrevocable human losses of the Kuibyshev Region that is founded on The Memory book and made by the author of the paper. The databank Memorial and the database Fatherland are on the Internet and help to determine the fate or find the information about the dead or missing relatives and friends as well as to determine their burial place. Sections of the victims are accompanied by links as well as by digital copies of archival documents that confirm the information about the date, place of service, death and burial of soldier. Electronic resources have unique features and value for achieving the historical truth about the price of Victory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Horev ◽  
Shanny Edan-Reuven ◽  
Ron Eshel ◽  
Lena Novack

In addition to the immediate casualties of armed conflicts, their indirect impact may bring even more damage by causing malfunctioning of health systems and impaired access to diagnosis and treatment. We conducted a population-based study, to assess the utilization rates of health services due to skin disorders, among civilians exposed to missile attacks and siren alarms during three military operations in Israel. The study was designed as a natural experiment, whereas periods of military operations were compared to the non-military times. During the military operations, when sirens and missiles were an everyday experience, the number of visits to dermatologists was 1.07-1.16 times lower [Relative Risk (RR)=0.86-0.92] as compared to the non-military periods, especially evident for patients residing closer to the military zone, where it dropped almost 2- folds (RR=0.52). Although perceived nonurgent in their majority, the routine care should not be delayed to prevent more serious skin conditions.


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