PMC and State Sovereignty

PMC have many advantages, they are more cost-effective, they can mobilize quicker, and they insulate the state form repercussions. Still, PMCs blur the lines between the state and civilian roles. PMCs, especially in the U.S., are a private business that can be hired by anyone. The U.S. government hires them for the advantages listed above. Other companies hire them for security and other purposes. They are great tools, but some argue by allowing the private companies to use force, it degrades state sovereignty.

Part of sovereignty is States “legally use[ing] violence since they have a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force." (5) PMC are allowed to use force in the international sphere. The main pro for PMCs is that they are "flexible foreign policy tools"; they allow for less politicized and politicized uses of force by both States and other actors. PMCs ability to use force is what creates questions surrounding State sovereignty. 

On the one hand, some argue that in most cases, PMCs an extension of the military so, they don't degrade sovereignty, but PMC’s are just another way that States use force. This argument loses merit since private companies can hiring PMC for security purposes. The counter-argument to that is when private companies hire PMCs, and they are no longer serving the State or the State's interests but the companies that hired them, making them not a threat to sovereignty. 

The other side of this argument is that any force used outside the States control is a threat to sovereignty. When private companies hire PMCs, there is a fear that that company is going to gain too much power and potentially overthrow the State. While that is always a risk State take when they allow in reality, PMC seems to have the opposite effect. For one large States like the U.S. do not have to fear this since the military is so vast no PMC would be able to overthrow it. Two in unstable and underdeveloped nations, this is more likely of a threat. It has turned out that in most cases, the companies that have hired PMC and have more of an interest in keeping the status quo of the States and the PMC have been known to stop coups rather than take part in them. (65). 

http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=149285