6 Peoples War

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JSB978

Just War Theory

Lecture 6

Peoples War

Peoples War

Wars are now fought on behalf of the population rather than the monarch. Under a democracy

sovereignty resides in the voting population even though the decisions are made by the elected

government. Similarly, under a Communist government, at least theoretically, the Central

Committee is acting on behalf of the citizenry. Consequently, wars are now fought between

nations and not between monarchs.

There are a number of ethical consequences of this change in focus:

The goal of military action is to defend the nations way of life rather than for conquest

and acquisition.

o The entire populace participates in the war effort either through military

service or supporting roles, including food production, industry etc. Thus they

are both combatants and valid targets.

Because we are fighting for our existence the boundaries of acceptable behaviour maybe pushed beyond ethical niceties.

Way of Life

If Australia were invaded today, the greatest issue for our population would be the loss of

freedom. We would cease to be Australians in the sense that we would lose our free society. Had

we been under a European monarch in, say, the 16th century, loss of a war would have resulted in

a new king. This may have been annoying but our everyday life would not have changed. The

same could not be said today. Conquest would necessitate the loss of democracy, self

determination and other freedoms. Our everyday lives would change significantly. This would be

intolerable to many, if not most, of the current population. They would fight longer and harder, and

probably continue a guerrilla war after the invasion.

We can see evidence for this when Western nations lost their freedom in World War II. The

Germans conquered France in 1940 and instituted a tyrannical fascist government. Many were

executed as a threat to the German Reich (this group would probably have included all you free

thinking students with Justice Degrees). Others were exterminated such as Jews and Gypsies.

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Many of the remaining population acquiesced and survived as best they could under the

Germans, with a hope, if not an expectation, that eventually the Allies would win and freedom

would be returned. Others were more active and continued to fight in the French Resistance and

Marquis.

The key point is that the war was personal. Most people could not simply accept the loss and

move on with their lives because the act of conquest changed not only their lives but who they

were as independent, free individuals. The same was true in other nations. The Spanish could not

accept the conquest of their country by the French in 1808 and fought a guerrilla war. Everyone in

the populace fought. In discussing a battle against guerrillas, Jean-Michel Chevalier, a French

soldier said:

Our enraged soldiers clambered up the rocks all around, and despite the inhabitants'desperate defence, despite a hail of bullets, we reached the main town square. Andthen, everything was sacrificed to our implacable vengeance. The old men, women and

children fired on us from the windows or threw stones down at us We were finallyforced to set the entire town on fire. And there then took place under our eyes the mostterrible scene: women, old men and children rushed out of the burning houses, and threwthemselves at the feet of their conquerors But the various soldiers slaughtered them!(quoted in Bell 2007, p.273)

The Population at War

Everyone in the population goes to war. The government changes the law to centralize control of

production and maximize the war effort. Goods are rationed and industry directed towards

producing products for the war rather than the consumer market. People are conscripted and

persuaded and occasionally coerced into serving in the military.

This has three consequences. First, the army is larger. Participation in military service is no

longer a feudal contract but a civil duty. The nation can introduce a levee en masse in which all

males of a fighting age are required to fight. This allowed the French Revolutionary government

to build an army large enough to fight off all the armies of Europe after the Revolution. Over time,

the nature of the levee en masse changed. The requirements of modern warfare give victory to

the trained and professional army over the amateur levee. Thus the nature of the peoples army

had to reflect this and the levee gave way to a formal system of training under conscription. After

the French Revolution, in 1798 the Directory passed the Jourdan Law which imposed

conscription on the population. The levee had only been a temporary arrangement when the

nation was in danger, while conscription became a permanent system of regular call ups for

service (Bell 2007, 210). As we will see in a future lecture, the question of conscription has been

accepted in most Western nations, but is far less popular in Australia.

Second, everyone in the population is now required to work in support of the war. Men who are

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not fighting work to support the army. Women make uniforms and support the troops. The

children are the future soldiers of the nation. No longer can anyone in the population be a

spectator to war. Third, if everyone is a supporter of the war then it is a short logical step to

conclude that everyone is a valid target of military operations. The preservation of non-

combatants is a carryover of a time before peoples warfare.

Bell argued that peoples war changes the nature of the military in society. Under the non-

democratic government, there was a military class that ruled over everyone else. Some

governments tried to modify the nature of the military class to make it more inclusive, but they

simply altered its appearance without changing the class conflict. Under an egalitarian

government the military had to be re-characterised.

European states in the eighteenth century had already shown some tendencies tosegregate their military forces from the rest of society, above all by building permanentcamps and barracks for soldiers and by trying to remake officer corps into full-time

professional bodies. But in France, these reforms did not go far enough to change themilitary's essentially aristocratic character, and at the start of the Revolution, it wasprecisely this aristocratic character that made the army an object of such enormous,almost paranoid, suspicion to radicals. As a result, not only did the Jacobins bloodilypurge aristocrats from the officer corps, but also, through the levee en masse, theysought to erase the distinction between army and nation entirely. "What is the army?" adeputy asked. "It is France as a whole All French citizens are the army." Most radicalsstill believed in the coming end of the age of war and did not want to see Francetransformed into a permanently warring Sparta. But until the final peace, everyone wouldfight (Bell 2007, 217-218).

The army now became an expression of the peoples will, that is, the actions of the military as

agents of the citizenry become the actions of the people of the nation. Thus we celebrate Anzac

Day as an Australian event while the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, was a personal victory for King

Henry VII over Richard III.

In France itself, the nation and the military, after having supposedly melted into eachother in the white heat of the levee en masse, did not solidify back into the early, complexsocial latticework dominated by a hereditary military class. Instead, a far more radicalprocess took place, which saw "the military" separate out into a society and culture farmore distinct than before from a sphere that could now be fully characterised, inopposition to it, as civilian. Finally, the reglorification of war in no way entailed a return tothe traditional aristocratic code of splendour, self-control, and dedication to the service ofthe hereditary prince. The new model of military glory was less a model of aristocraticperfection than of Romantic transcendence. It had a relationship to the Revolution's

febrile celebration of patriotic self-sacrifice, but it now came to focus less on theRevolution's cold and high ideals than on the prowess of individual warriors. In short, warwas becoming ever more something that societies must desire, and this desire tookphysical form in the person of Napoleon. (Bell 2007, 191)

We can find one exception with Bells analysis. At least in the West, the excesses of Revolution

have not been retained. As we saw last week, Western governments have rules for warfare and

actively try to prevent unrestrained destruction and genocide. So the Revolutionary fervour has

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died off. But the logic of excessive conduct is still ingrained in peoples war.

The French Army of the Revolution suffered from another problem. It did not keep the connection

between the military and the people. As the army was away from home and fighting without

apparent support of the rest of the people, it started to internalise its success and develop its own

identity.

After 1794, however, new and far deeper cracks open up between the military and civiliansociety. The soldiers recruited in the first two years of the war remained in the field,largely outside of France and isolated from civilian society. Naturally, they began toidentify principally with the army itself, and with generals like Napoleon, who soostentatiously look out for their welfare. The Revolutionary indoctrination throughspeeches, songs, and newspapers, to which the Jacobins had subjected the rank andfile, did not long survive the end of the Terror and its radical enthusiasms. Now, thegenerals are encouraged soldiers to take pride in victory for its own sake and for itsextension of French power The generals forced the weakened central government todo away with the political commissioners who had accompanied the armies under theTerror. Increasingly, like Napoleon in Italy, they behaved like princes.

Most significantly for the future, they also drew a severely unfavourable contrast betweenthe patriotism that allegedly prevailed in the armies and the corruption and partisanbickering back home. (Bell 2007, 217-218)

Thus the Revolutionary fervour was fragile. We have seen this many times in recent history when

armies overthrow governments on the pretext of being better able to serve the people than the

elected government. Pervez Musharraf led the Pakistan military in a coup in 1999 to prevent

corruption in the Pakistan government. He kept power till resigning on Monday of this week,

almost ten years after the coup. Whether sincerely or not, the coup was characterised in the

terms of an act in support of the people rather than the selfish intentions of the army.

The problem for military leaders is that they have to continue the battle to justified their extended

retention of power. Logically, if the military takes over they should immediately call a new election

to vote in a government to replace the old one. But they will claim that the pockets of resistence

need to be removed before it is safe for a new election. In the same way Napoleon justified his

imperial position on the basis on continual conquest across Europe. The French people did not

need him once the war was over, so he had to keep fighting or lose his post as Emperor.

Unfortunately for him, the nation could not supply an unlimited number of troops for a never

ending war. Eventually, the country was unable to support his military ambitions and he was

beaten (Bell 2007, p.232-233).

You need to win the hearts and minds of the people in order to win a peoples war. You must

convince the populous, not your enemies, that your goal in the war is just, that your goal is both

desirable and viable and ensure that they do not suffer war weariness. Lansdale (1964) points out

that the USA lost the Vietnam War because it failed on each of these points.

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Ethical Excess

After the French Revolution in 1789, the government fell into disorder. In the eyes of the new

government, the Revolution had to be defended against those who would undermine it. Under the

Assembly, France would no longer fight according to aristocratic niceties but had to take any

steps necessary to eliminate their enemies (Bell 2007, 108). This is a consequentialist argument;

the survival of the Revolution justifies all action taken to defend it. The French Revolution was the

first of many revolutions that embodied this dictum. In later manifestations, such as the

Communist Revolutions, it was not uncommon for the dictator to take the logic a further step and

embody the Revolution in themselves. Napoleon was the first to do so when he said The

Revolution is over. I am the Revolution. If you do not support me then you do not support the

Revolution. My desires and success can be supported by the same excesses as were allowed in

support of the Revolution.

The people of the Vendee region, inwestern France, were monarchist andopposed the Republican government. TheAssembly waged war against the people inthe Vendee rather than a breakawaygovernment. It was intended that theVendee be exterminated to save theRevolution. What we would call thegenocide they calledpopulicide (Bell 2007,158). A number of campaigns ofpacificationagainst the region took place between 1793and 1796. In 1794, General Turreau was

instructed to eliminate the populace,including women and children. His troopsmarched in separate columns, called theinfernal columns (colonnes infernales). It isestimated that more than half the populationof 800,000 were killed.

The massacre in the Vendeans was the notthe first massacre in history but it was thefirst justified by modern ideology of peopleswar. War took on a new conceptual form asa fight to the death between us and them. Ifthey exist we cannot thus they must be

exterminated. This conclusion was justifiedwith flimsy rationalisations of their inhumanity or the comparative importance of the Revolutionverses the lesser value of the lives of our opponents. In most cases this will be further justified bythe unrestrained violence on the part of our opponents who share similarly dehumanised feelingsfor us.

The difference was total war. It was not simply that the vendee took place in wartime (sodid the Camisard revolt, so did the 1745 Scottish rising). It was that it took place in thecontext of a kind of warfare whose scale had little or no precedent, whether in themobilization of population and resources, the ambitious and ill-defined war aims, the

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demonization of entire enemy populations, or the threats of the French leadership in thecase of defeat. It was a perceived war to the death, in which, as we have seen, parts ofthe Revolutionary leadership were beginning to romanticise combat in a new and sinisterway. And this sort of war, the threats of "extermination" dealt out on all sides were in factmeant in deadly earnest. Enemies of the Revolution, whether Vendean, aristocratic,Austrian, or English, were perceived as an existential evil. They were inhuman monsters.They were barbarians condemned by the High Court of history for a failure to accept theblessings of Revolutionary civilisation. They were obstacles to the triumph of liberty andtherefore to the coming of a final, universal peace. They did indeed deserve death. In itsvery theory, warfare was turning exterminatory.On most of France's battlefields during 1792-94, the practice did not live up to this theory.But in the Vendee, three exceptional conditions combined to produce a convergencebetween them. First, after December 1793, the revolutionary forces in the region did notface serious military opposition, and therefore could act without the possibility of reprisalsthat elsewhere helped limit atrocities - for instance, staying the hands of French generalsordered to execute British prisoners. Second, the experience of civil and guerrilla war,with massacres on both sides and the constant threat of ambush, generated powerfulstates of hatred and fear that allowed soldiers to overcome the natural humanrepugnance for slaughtering helpless prisoners and civilians.Third, for a brief but decisive period in late 1793 and early 1794, control of military

operations in the Vendee, to the extent that it existed, passed partly into the hands of therevolutionary faction known as the Hebertists, after Jacque Hebert, editor of Le pereDuchesne the Hebertists were revolutionaries who combined the most ferventdedication to classical fantasies of total war with the least actual military experience.They were are also those most likely to demand that insufficiently victorious orsanguinary generals be sent to the guillotine. Turreau followed what was to a great extentof their plan and acted under their influence, while fearful, as he later put it in a self

justifying memoir, that "the least refusal -- what I've am I saying, the least negligence --would have led to the scaffold." it was thanks to these factors that in the Vendee, therhetoric of total war was fully translated into blood-streaked, exterminatory fact." (Bell2007, 160-161)

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Private Military Contractors

Private military contractors (PMC), also called Private Military Firms, have existed since the creation of

civilized warfare. They are usually called mercenaries,

which are soldiers who sell their services for anyone whowill pay.

Throughout history the public support and opposition

for PMC has varied. They have been glorified, like the

mercenary Ronin in the movie The Seven Samurai

(later made into a Western called The Magnificent

Seven). They have also been pilloried as parasites

who make money off killing and have no moral

compass.

What is a PMC?

PMC come in two forms: the bayonet strength soldier and the REMF. The latter have seen

continual service in all armies in history while the former almost disappeared from the mainstream

military from the Napoleonic Wars till the last couple of decades.

Kidwell (2005) says that PMCs share certain characteristics that distinguish them from the normal

military:

For-profit organizations providing military services in a global market;

They provide services traditionally conducted by uniform personnel;

They are driven by market demands;

They are controlled by company policy not governments;

They optimize profit through modern business management techniques (Kidwell 2005, 1).

PMCs vary in size from individual contractors to globalised mega-corporations (Kidwell 2005, 2).

Singer (2008) divides the PMC industry into military providers who provide tactical services on or

near the front-line, consulting firms providing capacity building services for a military body, and

support firms that are logistical service providers. The latter are the largest component of the

PMC industry. Brooks breaks them down into PMC that provide active services like training and

combat as opposed to Private Security Companies (PSC) that provide passive security. Although

he notes that some companies would be both PSC and PMC (Brooks 2002, 129-130). Brayton,

on the other hand, provides three types of mercenaries:

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1. Those who supply war fighting or direct combat support.

2. Large commercial companies who provide operational command such as war planning

and general staff roles.

3. Specialised service applications such as electronic surveillance. (Brayton 2002, 307-308)

There is a consensus of a distinction between combat services and REMF services; what Faite

(2004, 168) calls active and passive services. The latter do not attract the same suspicion and

scorn as the former.

Brooks differentiates both forms of companies from freelance mercenaries, at term he limits to

individual soldiers hiring themselves out to fight in combat. Freelance mercenaries are

individuals that generally exhibit few of the inhibitions that influence companies to maintain a

degree of ethics in their operations. (Brooks 2002, 131) These are the men who are targeted by

anti-mercenary laws.

Difference between PMC and Mercenaries

No one likes mercenaries. They fill a profile of profiteering from warfare and having no loyalty to

anyone but themselves. All nations want to outlaw mercenaries but they also want to use PMC.

This has led to a ineffective legal regime to prevent the occurrence of mercenary activity.

Article 47 of theAdditional Protocols to the Geneva Convention1977 defined mercenaries as:

Specifically recruited to fight overseas

Participates directly in fighting

Motivated by private gain

Not a national nor resident of the region in which the fighting takes place

Not a member of either sides armed forces

Not an official representative of a third party armed forces.

Note that all six categories must be met before a person is deemed a mercenary. The terms of

the International Convention Against Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries

1989 (came into force in 2001) uses similar wording.

There were some special types of troops who were not the classic mercenaries. Some of these

like the Gurkhas and the French Foreign Legion are foreigners who form part of the permanent

army of a nation. These are not mercenaries because they are regarded as foreigners serving in

the national army. Alternatively there are some armies that are staffed and paid for by another

nation, such as the Arab Legion that fought for Jordan in the 1920s to 1950s. Hughes argued that

a British soldier who fought in the Arab Legion was not a mercenary as they were still serving

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their own nations interests. They knew it was in Britains interest because the British government

paid for their service in the Jordanian military. Many were still permanent soldiers in the British

army who were seconded to the Legion. Hughes listed three types of service for a foreign nation:

(Hughes 2008)

Article 47 is easily overcome. All a nation using mercenaries needs to do is formally incorporate

the force into its national military and they cease to be mercenaries. As Percy notes any

mercenary who cannot exclude himself from this definition deserves to be shotand his lawyer

with him! (Percy 2007, 369). Article 47 also only applies to international conflict, thus it does not

refer to mercenaries in a civil war (Faite 170).

Many PMC are made up of retired elite soldiers. The average special forces soldier is forced to

retire at about the age of 40. They have only every known a military life and only developed

military skills. Thus they seek out employment that will best utilize these skills. So it is notsurprising that groups like the Gurkhas have formed a company called Gurkha Security Guards

and many other corporations like Armour Corp hire former SAS soldiers.

History of PMC

The use of PMC is not new. Private contractors have provided services to the military throughout

history. The modern corporations have been increasing their involvement with the military over

the last century. By the 1970s in the United States PMC were becoming more popular because

they are outside of congressional oversight. The post-Vietnam US military was reduced in size.

The smaller military led to a greater reliance on PMC. Current US arrangements and designed toallow the military to concentrate on war fighting; more tooth, less tail (Kidwell 2005, 18). PMC

allow rapid deployment, coordinated skills, and keep troop numbers within congressional

mandates. However, command and control is difficult because contractors did not reflect

commanders intent and foreign PMC working with the US led to language difficulties.

In a short wall and the benefits of having a PMC outweigh the negatives. It is cheaper to hire the

PMC than build their own army. Thus the first Iraq war left the use of PMC is in a good light

(Kidwell 2005, 19-20).

PMC began to grow in strength in Africa in the 1960s as nationalist struggles brought warfare

across the continent. Mercenary groups are significantly cheaper, better equipped and trained

than any army the locals could have raised. Mining companies did, and still do, hire PMC to

protect their operations in African nations disrupted by civil wars. The first was De Beers in the

1950s and now almost all companies have security firms on contract (Dokubo 2000, 54).

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One of the drivers of the use of PMC was the increased complexity of logistics, and therefore the

increased specialization of logistics providers. In addition, logistics providers increased in number

in comparison to the bayonet strength of military units. The last 40 years, there is a change in US

policy in relation to the reliance on PMC. They are no longer used as a necessity but are now

seen as a natural part of the military. Current doctrine except the support of contractors and

coalition partners as an integral component of military operations. In addition, the rapid tempo of

current military operations often requires rapid deployment. (Kidwell 2005, 21) Some suggest

that the US military could no longer actually go to war without PMC (Kidwell 2005, 22).

Kidwell describes the rise of the PMC after the cold war as follows: global instability increase the

demand for PMC; the relative safety of the US decreased the size of the military; the large

number of military personnel leaving created a supply of qualified personnel to work within the

PMC; and finally other that the increased size of the US military increase the role of PMC as asupporting element of the US military (Kidwell 2005, 27).

PMC increased exponentially after the end of the Cold War. (Kidwell 2005, 3) Their advantage is

that they can rapidly expand the size of the force, because the army does not need to mobilize

and train the service people itself. You can simply hire the existing expertise from the private

sector (Kidwell 2005, 3). Brooks says the increase in PMC occurred because of three reasons.

First, third world dictators were no longer propped up by the US or USSR and lost power. Wars

developed in the power vacuums left behind. Second, demilitarization left a lot of soldiers out of

work. Third, the globalised market place allowed multinational corporations to start mining insmall insecure nations, which resulted in a need for private security (Brooks 2002, 132-133).

Executive Outcomes (EO) was the first major PMC in operation. It was formed by former senior

officers of the Aparthied regime in South Africa and worked throughout the continent in both

training, security and combat roles (Dobuko 2000, 58). The most famous contract was when EO

ended the civil war in Sierra Leone, as depicted in the movie Blood Diamonds (2006). It is

rumoured that EO was paid with mining concessions rather than in cash (Brayton 2002, 313).

The best recongised incident in our region was when a company called Sandline, a subordinate

of EO, assisted the Papua New Guinea government fight the rebels in Bougainville (Dobuko

2000, 60). EO was put out of business in 1999, when the South African government banned its

citizens from participating in mercenary actions (Brayton 2002, 315).

The explosion in PMC work outside Africa arose after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The

nations involved in nation building refused to commit large numbers of troops because of the cost

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or risk of soldiers dying. The security void was filled by PMC. Even so, Brooks believes that the

PMC industry is still in its infancy as a large number of small companies still dominate the market

(Brooks 2002, 133)

Some have supported the use of PMC in military operations because they are highly skilled and

tend to be successful. While others note that PMC are restricted to one course of action, that is

violence, to resolve issues (Dobuko 2000, 61)

The current downturn in violence in Iraq has severely hurt the PMC market. The demand for

security has fallen well below supply and prices and employment opportunities are plummeting

(Hammer 2008).

Ethical Issues

Kidwell says that using PMC raises ideological, legal, moral, and ethical concerns. (Kidwell2005, 4)

Privatisation of Inherent Government Functions

A problem arises over at differentiating what it called inherently governmental functions, various

functions and that ought not be carried out by a private corporation. War fighting, for example,

would be regarded as an inherently governmental function. Martin van Creveld used to call this

Trinitarian warfare: the rule born at Westphalia that has guided modern conflict with the principle

that in war it is the government that directs, the army that fights, and the people who suffer

(Brayton 2002, 303-304) Brooks said that PMC are not restricted in their operational rules orthinking as governments must be and can offer a much cheaper and more flexible service than

national armies. He gives the example of Executive Outcomes which defeated the RUF rebels in

Sierra Leone for $40 million whereas the UN peacekeepers who arrived after them cost $50

million per month (Brooks 2002, 131). He believes this will continue as there is no hope of a

successful peace keeping operation if the USA refuses to participate in a crisis (Brooks 2002,

134, Brayton 2002, 304). So perhaps the rise of the PMC is a direct consequence of the failure of

governments to meet their own responsibilities. As James Woods, a PMC contractor, noted: If

the international community cannot get its act together and help these countries keep themselves

together and protect commerce and protect the citizenry, youre going to see more and more

examples of private contractors doing the job. (Brayton 2002, 318) It may be that similar inaction

by UN member states may force the UN to hire PMC to enforce Security Council decisions

(Brayton 2002, 321).

As with all forms of outsourcing, PMCs take over government roles but are not accountable to

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the public for their actions. Governments can outsource their ethical responsibilities. For

example, the US government does not, and may not be able to, keep a track of how many PMC

staff have been killed in Iraq nor how many civilians they have killed (Walzer 2008). Brayton

explains how NATO allowed the private company MPRI to train the Croatian troops during the

Balkan crisis. None of the NATO nations wanted to be seen to put troops on the ground, as

opposed to flying in the air, and effectively enter the Balkan conflict. It appears that MPRI was

extremely successful in their given task and the Croats took back a key strategic town from the

Serbs, possibly with MPRI planning assistance. The company was given a further contract after

the conclusion of the conflict to bolster the Croatian Army. There was hardly any public debate

on the use of MPRI and it received little media attention. As Brayton said: This scenario

demonstrates how private military companies can help policymakers achieve their goals free from

the need to secure public approval and safe in the knowledge that, should the situation

deteriorate, official participation can be denied. (Brayton 2002, 311)

The eminent just war theorist Michael Walzer says that: It is not just accountability for politicians

that matters; equally important is the question of accountability for individual fighters. And soldiers

who get out of hand are accountable in ways that mercenaries are not. (Walzer 2008) At the

heart of his concerns is the States monopoly on violence. This is an important aspect of a

democratic nation. Violence must be restrained and only used for the public good. If the State is

the sole legitimate source of violence and the state is accountable, then the public can ensure

that violence is not used against the public interest. Walzer sees the rise of PMC as a breakdown

on the States monopoly on violence. It is a very dangerous business to loosen the states grip

on the use of violence, to allow war to become anything other than a public responsibility.(Walzer 2008)

Modern governments have to be held responsible for the actions of PMC that they hire. For

example, they could not simply stand at arms length and allow the PMC to run the war in

whatever manner they wished. They could not allow the PMC to use biological weapons or land

mines. They could not allow them to torture or kill indiscriminately.

Profit Motive

PMC have no vested interest in the national or humanitarian interests of the employer, they are

only bound by the contractual provisions (Kidwell 2005, 4; Brayton 2002, 319). Consequently,

they are given a free hand and can be violent without being responsible for its outcomes. But

Singer argues that their needs of the PMC, namely profit, may not match the public good of the

nation that hires them. That is, private companies as a rule are more interested in doing well

than good. (Singer 2008, 217)

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However, some PMC argue that the profit motive is a positive as they can be relied on to act

ethically because of the nature of market forces. Governments will not hire them if they have a

bad reputation. As Brooks says:

Companies fear retribution by their home governments for illegal or unethical operations,and recognized that a bad corporate reputation could result in the loss of future contractsto their competitors PSCs who wish to work with the UN and other humanitarian clientsmust maintain squeaky-clean operations and are scrupulous about their activities so thatthey are not tainted by any hint of mercenarism. Thus they are keen not only toemphasize what services they do provide, but also to emphasize what services they donot provide.(Brooks 2002, 131-132)

Also many PMC operatives are not threatening to governments. Some firms specialize in non-

militaristic services such as demining or logistics, which are seen as clearly legitimate activities

(Brooks 2002, 132). He goes on to claim that: Most PMC/PSCs have publicly welcomed moves

towards increased regulation in the industry, believing that the increased legitimacy will bring with

it new clients, and also because regulations are a barrier to entry that helps to keep out new

competition. (Brooks 2002, 137)

Some claim that PMC do not use violence indiscriminately. They are more professional and have

better discipline than many regular army troops. They do not harbour grudges against the local

population as might an invading army (Singer 2008, 217). These factors specifically relate to

PMC in modern conflicts.

But bad publicity is tightening contract controls. Blackwater fallout Blackwater staff became so

indiscriminate in their shooting and killing of civilians that new rules have severely restricted the

ability of all security PMC to protect their clients (Hammer 2008). This was a fulfillment of a fear

about PMC that existed throughout the 1990s, namely, the need to take responsibility for the

potential harm a PMC could inflict rather despite the fact that up till then there was no critical

event which undermined the reputation of PMC generally (Brooks 2002, 135).

Legal Status

The legal status of PMC employees in combat is not clear. For example, if a PMC employee was

captured it is not clear whether they are POW, a noncombatant or some other form of participant.Faite suggests the following:

Under Art 4 of the Geneva Convention PMC are non-soldiers accompanying armed

forces with the consent of the army and therefore would be made POWs;

Advisers who do not fight are civilians;

PMC who fight are valid targets;

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PMC who have a commander, wear a fixed emblem, carry arms openly and accord with

the laws and customs of war, are combatants under the Hague Regulations and Geneva

Convention;

PMC who simply carry a weapon are not automatically combatants;

PMC who defend a military installation are valid targets even if they are otherwise non-combatants; and

A nation that hires a PMC is responsible for its actions. (Faite 2004)

PMC are immune from prosecution for their actions in Iraq. They are neither local Iraqis nor

members of the military and fall within a gap in the law. This has meant that no one could take

action for what would otherwise be unlawful killing by PMC staff (Walzer 2008). This is one of the

issues currently being debated between the Iraqi and US governments.

The powerful PMC could become the law in the region in which it operates, could aggravate

relations between states, and/or end up becoming a belligerent party in the dispute (Kidwell 2005,

4). Brayton says that many mining companies could use their PMC staff to help support a

government that allowed the continuation of the mining arrangements. The mining company and

its private troops could build up such power in the region that they become a de facto power in

the nation (Brayton 2002, 309-310).

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Women in the Military

Women have traditionally been left out of the military.

Modern attitudes are changing with the only remaining restriction in modern Western armies

being a ban on frontline service. Although shortages in Iraq may be forcing some units to ignore

these regulations (Bender 2005)

Issues

A range of reasons have been given as to why women ought not be allowed to be in the military,

or, if in the military, participate in front line battles. These were reviewed by a major investigation

by the RAND Corporation (Harrell & Miller 1997) which debunked most myths about women in

the military.

First they looked at readiness, which they broke down into five categories: whether personnel

are available, qualified, experienced, stable to the unit, and motivated (Harrell & Miller 1997, 34).

They found that gender had no significant impact on readiness. Of the written comments noting

issues for readiness 275 discussed training and only 2 mentioned gender.

Availability female soldiers were unavailable for service because of being pregnant, a single

mother or sick/injured. Pregnant soldiers cannot be deployed overseas and cannot perform

some normal tasks that have a risk for the baby, including firing weapons. Officers and senior

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NCOs tended to plan their pregnancy to fit the needs of the unit. This was not true of junior

soldiers. Single motherhood was an issue but based on numbers there were more single

males parents than single female parents in the military. There was no difference in the

availability issues for single parents based on gender. There was a perception that women

were on sick call more often than men and that some officers did not push women to suck it

up as they would for men. Also many male NCOs and officers did not know what to do when

confronted by soldiers with female problems and tended to accept this as a excuse to be

excused duty. Senior female NCOs and officers did not accept this excuse.

Qualification gender had no effect on qualification of troops. The only issue was strength

and most supervisors solved this issue by having tasks completed in groups rather than by

individuals, thus negating any single soldiers strength deficiency whether male or female.

There was no perception that women were not qualified for any occupation.

Experience gender only played an issue in so far as women are excluded from frontline

combat positions and therefore cannot obtain experience in core war fighting roles. Stability this relates to turnover of personnel in a unit. Other than pregnancy, stability only

became an issue when women were a minority in a unit. If the small group of women rotated

out of a unit and were not replaced by other women then the unit would lose the routine of

having females around. They would have to relearn it when new women were assigned to the

unit.

Cohesion is also important. They discussed two types of cohesion. Social cohesion refers to the

emotional bonds of the group. Task cohesion relates to the shared commitment of team members

to complete a task. The military tries to ensure that social cohesion does not undermine

leadership issues or task cohesion. They have made studies that show that too much or the

wrong type of fraternisation breaks down the quality of the unit. Thus they ban fraternisation

between officers and enlisted troops.

However, the RAND study did not find that gender alone upset cohesion.

In the navy, women had to have separate quarters to men. Usually all the members of a team

berthed together but that was not possible with mixed genders. Different locations meant a

breakdown in communication and coordination.

Poor cohesion was only seen when both social and task cohesion in a unit were low and this

did not necessarily relate to gender. Some men missed the old style male bonding such as

they could no longer walk around half-naked on ship, sware and drink with the guys, go as a

unit to a strip club with their leaders, or engage in hazing practices (Harrell & Miller 1997, 65)

but this was now seen as unprofessional and undesirable. Also many men noted that

personal hygiene improved amongst men when women joined the unit.

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Gender, race, religion, ethnicity and background had no effect on cohesion.

The proportions of genders in a group made no difference and the gender of supervisors did

not affect cohesion.

Gender problems arose when women were first introduced to a unit and overzealous male

officers afraid of sexual harassment claims banned their men from talking, sitting next to orgoing near the female soldiers. In the early days of mixing genders in a unit or on a ship

female officers had to be careful that that did not generate rumours of sexual liaisons by

socialising to often with the same men.

There was no perception that during combat men would fail to perform their duties in order to

protect women. The only exception was if two people were in a couple.

Gender was also not a major influence on morale.

Only 8 out of 900 responses identified gender as a morale issue.

There were claims of sexual harassment in the early days of mixed units but these were

found to relate to some women simply not liking normal male behaviour such as swearing,

tobacco chewing, or watching sports games or kung fu movies in the workplace or barracks

rather than actual sexual discrimination, sexual statement or sexual advances. Nonetheless,

many men were very conscious of their behaviour lest they open themselves up to a sexual

harassment charge. Male officers were also more likely than female officers to believe a claim

of sexual harassment. Many women who did face genuine harassment confronted the

harasser and handled the situation on their own.

Most soldiers of both genders agreed that officers did not treat women differently to men.

Though amongst those who disagreed, the men believed women received less of the dirty

jobs and women thought they received more of the dirty jobs. Also some men claimed women

did not have to work as hard for benefits while women claimed they hard to work harder.

The Culture of the Female Military

Still women are a minority on the battlefield. They are usually outnumbered ten to one, or even

more, when they serve overseas. This has led to two issues related to sex. It would be nave to

assume that soldiers were not having sex with each other even when it is against the rules. In her

memoir, Love my Rifle More than You, Kayla Williams (2005) said there were two phenomena.

One related to how your own male colleagues saw you; she called this Queen for a year.

A woman at war: youre automatically a desirable commodity, and a scarce one at that.

We call it Queen for a Year [the term of a normal overseas posting] Even the

unattractive girls start to act stuck-up

Theres also this deployment scale for hotness. Let me explain. On a scale of ten, say

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shes a five. You knowaverage looks, maybe a little mousy, nothing special. But okay.

Not a girl who gets second glances in civilian life. But in the Army, while were deployed?

Easily an eight. One hot babe. On average everygirl probably gets three extra points on

a ten-point scale. Useful. After youre in-country for a few months, all the girls begin to

look goodor at least better. It changeshow should I say this?the dynamics of being

deployed

The younger girls were the most susceptible. Many thrived and fed on the male attention

they were getting for the first time in their lives. (Williams 2005, 19-20)

Alternatively, the locals from a Middle Eastern country could not understand what women would

be doing in the military and assumed they were prostitutes employed to service the troops.

(Williams 2005, 21)

Women in the ADF

Women were first allowed in the Australian military when the colonial government of NSW set up

an Army Nursing Service in 1899. Nursing was the only job women could hold in the Australian

military until WW2. This did not mean they were out of the line of fire with 29 nurses being killed

in WWI and 71 in WWII.

The first womens service was the Womens Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) in 1941 (later

renamed the Womens Royal Australian Air Force or WRAAF). This was followed the next year bythe Womens Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS). The Army did not follow suit with the

Womens Australian Army Corp (WAAC) till 1951. During all this time women were not allowed to

participate in operational roles. The separate services continued for decades. The Air Force were

the first to incorporate women into the full service when they abolished the WRAAF in 1977. The

first two female pilots were not commissioned till 1987.

Other forms of discrimination were embedded into the womens services. Till 1969 women had to

leave the service if they got married. In 1971 the government removed the requirement that

women also had to leave the service if they fell pregnant. Females in the military did not receive

equal pay to men till 1979. However, women were still banned form combat roles. Even the

introduction and expansion of anti-discrimination legislation did not change this as successive

governments allowed Defence Force exemptions from the Acts. Nonetheless the number of jobs

in the military that were available to women increased over time from 23% in 1984 to 87% by

1992.

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The Navy were the first service to relax operational restrictions on women. The HMAS Jervis Bay

became the first Australian naval vessel to have a mixed crew in 1984, albeit in a training role.

However, the next year the WRANS were abolished and women were allowed to serve at sea. By

1991 women were also allowed to serve onboard submarines (ADF 1999).

For a full history see the document provided on Blackboard called Chronology of Women in the

Australian Military.

The current percentages of personnel that are female in each arm of the ADF is:

Navy 18%

Army 12%

Air Force 17%

(Dept of Defence http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/womenInDefence/#gHeader)

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6 Peoples War

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