PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY: AN ENGLISH SCHOOL APPROACH TO REGULATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The growth and prevalence of the private military industry has led many to conclude that the state has outsourced one of its core functions: public security. As a global non-state actor, PMSCs pose a risk to state sovereignty by undermining the democratic legitimacy of armed forces and challenging the states international monopoly over force. This study, using the tripartite model in English school theory, refutes this commonly held belief by examining the regulatory methods that have brought PMSCs squarely under state control. This study organizes regulatory efforts in a three level concept of national, international and self-regulatory methods, and based on the increased national regulatory methods, mixed with international norms and weak self-regulation, concludes that states maintain their primacy over violence in world politics.