PMC Protection Rackets
This is a follow up to a brief I gave to a top academic audience a few years ago, titled “Rising Market-States: The Evolving Role of Private Military Contractors.”
The only difference between Hamas, LeT, Naxals, Shining Path, Taliban, Zetas and private military corporations (PMCs) is that the latter is tasked with security (protection) by choice, whereas the others establish dominance in a TAZ.
PMCs have thus far enjoyed a parasitic relationship with nation-states, absorbing functions of states in return for large swaths of cash. This has demanded large firms with large scale resource (fuel, infrastructure, manpower) requirements. Many have ramped up their organizations to take advantage of the golden age – Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The breakdown of the nation-state demands that this industry adapt to smaller clients. PMCs will have to detether themselves from the nation-state and its trappings, compete with these various insurgencies, and restructure the industry to suit this new reality. Others, the non state actors previously listed, are better suited – adept at violence, experienced in governance, and already agile – to the emerging future.
Some will provide top notch security services, help stand up new microstates, protect homes and businesses, and enable life to continue with lean governance structures. However, many will not be able to continue offering their clients a choice (a function of quality of service), instead choosing to coopt the tactics of their competitors – forcing participation for one, and taking on the multiple black economy revenue streams for another. In essence, private insurgencies.
// The upcoming funding disruption to the DoD can help accelerate this process.
-Shlok
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