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47 German Y.B. Int'l L. 502 (2004)
Outsourcing War: Private Military Companies and International Humanitarian Law

handle is hein.journals/gyil47 and id is 503 raw text is: 



















      Outsourcing War - Private Military Companies and
                 International Humanitarian Law

                             By Nicki Boldt


                             A. Introduction

  War, in a non-technical sense, implies continuous fighting conducted by or-
ganized militaries which engage the responsibility of governments.' Outsourc-
ing means purchasing a significant percentage of intermediate components or
services from outside suppliers.2 Outsourcing war therefore means purchasing
needed military components and services from so called private military compa-
nies (PMCs).3
  Today, outsourcing of military functions by States like the United States of
America or the United Kingdom has reached a scale that was not predictable ten
years before. From 1994 to 2002, the US Defense Department entered into over
3,000 contracts with US-based PMCs with a value of more than $ 300 billion.4
These figures will rise to new unknown heights in 2003 and 2004 due to the
conflict in Iraq.5 A third of the US budget for the war in Iraq is reportedly spent



   1 Lothar Kotzsch, The Concept of War in Contemporary History and International
Law, 1956, 56.
  2 Gretchen Morgenson/Campbell R. Harvey, The New York Times Dictionary of
Money and Investing, 2002.
  ' Often known as Private Military Contractors, Private Military Firms or Private Se-
curity Companies.
  4 According to Laura Peterson from The Center for Public Integrity, Privatizing
Combat, The New World Order, 2002, available at: http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/
report. aspx?aid= 148.
  ' International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), The ICRC Is to Expand Con-
tacts With Private Military and Security Companies, 2004, available at: http://www.
icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList74/21414DE8FCAF2645C1256EE50038A63 1;
Peterson (note 4).

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