Future of private military companies - Essay Example

Future of Private Military Companies Private Military Companies are privately owned military companies that provide all functions that are carried out by a national military force with one major difference; their main motive is to make profit unlike national military forces that exist with the rationale of protecting the borders of the state where they serve.There are many private military companies across the globe, amongst which Black Water is a very famous name. It would not make sense to think of private military companies as a cost effective alternate to governmental security forces because there is a lot of difference between the two forces.

To start off, government security forces are given in-depth training before they are allowed to join the forces. However, the focus of private military companies seems to be more skewed towards imparting training only to the extent that their soldiers can go out in the fields and thrive there, but not to excel and take the enemy by storm the way national or governmental security forces are trained to do. In the recent history private military companies have been deployed across dangerous and war torn regions of the world, marking a wide shift from their early use as security agents to high net worth clients, politicians and diplomats amongst others.

Looking through recent history, we get to know organizations like Black Water have been deployed across war torn Afghanistan by the Americans, and also in Pakistan in a bid to provide beefed up security to their local embassies in the country. However, their presence has not been widely appreciated as critics often believe private contractors like Black Water do not form a part of the “military” and therefore should not be entrusted with the same powers as them (Axelrod, 2014). Even thinking from an ethical perspective does not allow entrusting private military contractors with responsibilities as huge as looking after a country’s national defense function.

What needs to be understood here and is of critical importance is the fact that these private companies mainly exist to mint money or make profit; something which serves as a motivation for them to work hard, but still would probably not motivate them enough to give their life if need be, to protect their country against an attack or infiltration from enemies. On the contrary, national/government security forces have been trained in a manner which instills a belief inside a soldier’s mind that there is nothing big in this world then sacrificing their life in a bid to save their nation from the enemy’s eye.

It is this belief which fully motivates members of government security forces to give in their hundred percent when it comes to their country’s defense without even thinking of their life once because to them it is the pride of their nation that is supposed to matter the most, not extrinsic factors like salary etc.All this sums up to only one logical conclusion that even though private military companies are doing a good job, they are not at all a replacement to governmental security forces.

ReferenceTop of FormAxelrod, A. (2014). Mercenaries: A guide to private armies and private military companies.Bottom of Form