Mercenaries and Private Military Companies: How they Destabilize and Undermine African States

Abstract

This essay outlines the negative long-term effects of mercenary groups on state building in fragile African countries, with specific emphasis on Sierra Leone. Private Military
Company intervention in weak states has historically lead to an undermining of the acting national government's monopoly on the use of force and has served to threaten the
sovereignty of these nation-states, due to its' privileged capacity to circumvent international law and global regulation. In spite of the supposed benefits on the surface,
violent private military involvement has neocolonialist underpinnings that stunt growth in the long run. The privatization of force represents a serious assault on the domestic
and foreign policy interests of developing states and demands meaningful international consideration