Multinational corporations are the biggest new clients of mercenaries, especially the extractive industries to protect their formal colonial mining interests, and replace official military forces for this dirty job, avoiding political repercussions?
Companies working in dangerous places are tired of relying on corrupt or inept security forces provided to them by host governments, and they are turning to private force.
For example, mining giant Freeport-McMoRan employed Triple Canopy to protect its vast mine in Papua, Indonesia, where there is an insurgency.
The China National Petroleum Corporation contracts DeWe Security to safeguard its assets in the middle of South Sudan’s civil war. Someday ExxonMobil or Google may hire an army, too.
There are mercenaries on the sea as well, similar to privateers 2 centuries ago. International shipping lines hire them to protect their ships traveling through pirate waters in the Gulf of Aden, Strait of Malacca, and Gulf of Guinea. Here’s how it works.
Armed contractors sit on arsenal ships in pirate waters and chopper to a client freighter or tanker when called. Once aboard, they act as embarked security, hardening the ship with razor wire and protecting it with high-caliber firepower.
After the ship passes through pirate waters, the team returns to its arsenal ship and awaits the next client. The industry is based in London, and seeks legitimacy through ISO 28007 certification.
Some would like to see true privateers: private naval vessels that could hunt and kill pirates.
Americans will be pleased to know that Congress is authorized to hire privateers under Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, and this could prove more efficient than sending Arleigh Burke–class destroyers after pirate zodiacs.
There are even mercenaries in cyberspace, called hack back companies. These computer companies attack hackers, or “hack back” those who assail their client’s networks. Hack back companies cannot undo the damage of a network breach, but that is not the point.
They serve as a deterrent. If hackers are choosing targets, and they know that one company has a hack-back company behind it and the other does not, they select the softer target.
Also known as active defense, this practice is currently illegal in many countries, including the United States, but some are questioning this edict since the National Security Agency offers scant protection for nongovernmental entities.
For example, the WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017 infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries.
Victims included the British National Health Service, Spain’s Telefónica, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, and U.S. companies like Federal Express. If countries cannot protect their people and organizations from cyber attack, then why not allow them to protect themselves?
National Defense University Press / ABC Flash Point Blog News 2022.
