Black water private military company - Essay Example

Such private military firms refer to their line of business as The Circuit or private military industry in an effort of avoiding the stigma of being associated with mercenaries often. In the armed conflict history, hiring of mercenaries to carry out some military operations has been a common practice. The expertise and services offered by the PMCs are basically similar to the ones of police forces or governmental military, but most often occurs on smaller scale. While the PMCs often offer services to supplement and train official armed forces in governmental services, they can also be utilized in provision of bodyguards by the private firms for key staff or even protection of the premises of companies, particularly in hostile prone areas.

However, the contractors who employ offensive mode of force in war zones could be viewed as unlawful or illegal combatants, with reference to a Geneva Conventions’ concept outline as well as explicitly specified by US Military Commissions Act (Barnes 32-35). Nation-states are hiring the private military firms in increasing rates to act in areas marred by armed conflicts. The predominant feeling within international community is that regulation of such companies is quite imperative. The present Congress has grappled with a variety of issues concerning the utilization of the private contractors in provision of security for individuals as well as property in Iraq and other conflict prone areas.

This has seen the US gradually increasing the kinds of roles and tasks contracted to the private firms in military operations. Generally, the US Congress has accepted the use of the unarmed private contractors’ concept to conduct support functions in the military operations like provision of laundry and food services. However, this has posed a different challenge concerning the contracts’ costs and the alleged cases of favoritism in the issuance of these services (Elsea, Schwartz & Nakamura 5).

Some of the emergent armed non-state