Article: Controlling Private Military Services in the UK and Germany

Between Partnership and Regulation by Elke Krahmann
The emergence of a private military service industry has attracted considerable academic and public attention in recent years. (..) While so far most studies have tended to generalise the experiences with private military companies in the Third World, this article focusses on Western Europe. Two reasons support this focus. First, although the use of private mercenaries in Africa has been best publicised, the large majority of private military companies are not only based on Europe and North America, but are also employed by governments in industrialised countries. Second, while developing countries may be most threatened by the problems linked to the use of private military companies, governments in industrialised countries are best placed to regulate them. Download article as PDF