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Silent Partners: Private Forces, Mercenaries, And International Humanitarian Law In The 21st Century, Steven R. Kochheiser
Silent Partners: Private Forces, Mercenaries, And International Humanitarian Law In The 21st Century, Steven R. Kochheiser
University of Miami National Security & Armed Conflict Law Review
In response to gritty accounts of firefights involving private forces like Blackwater in Iraq and Afghanistan, many legal scholars have addressed the rising use of private forces—or mercenaries—in the 21st century under international law. Remarkably, only a few have attempted to understand why these forces are so objectionable. This is not a new problem. Historically, attempts to control private forces by bringing them under international law have been utterly ineffective, such as Article 47 of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions. In Silent Partners, I propose utilizing the norm against mercenary use as a theoretical framework to understand at …