(Nikhil’s Assignment : Grade 12 : World Affairs)

Mercenaries are a very old concept which, like all warfare, has undergone a major transformation in the twenty first century. What were once merely violent individuals employed by states against each other have now integrated themselves into modern militaries. Their lack of professionalism, regulation and respect for the law makes them an incompetent fighting force, which present several threats to the very states which hire them.

The rules of war outlined by the Geneva Convention and the United Nations (UN) are supposed to be all encompassing, and yet has gaping holes in it for the use of mercenaries. The UN 1989 mercenary convention identifies mercenaries as people “motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain”[1], but are neither a national of a party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a party to the conflict.” Modern PMCs do fit this description and so are just twenty first century mercenaries, which are outlawed by the Geneva Convention, “A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war”[2]. While the convention illegalizes the use of mercenaries, the modern PMCs do not have to define themselves as such. This is because the primary employers of PMCs (Canada, Great Britain, USA, China) did not sign the UN convention, and so do not call their employees mercenaries. International law is also vague on the division of responsibilities of the employer to control their PMCs, which allows the PMCs to operate unchecked. The parties that “issue the contracts are barely capable of doing much in the way of monitoring, because army officers do not want to discipline private soldiers that aren’t part of its chain of command.”[3] This lack of mandatory control has given PMCs the confidence to operate unscrupulously like they did in Nisour Sqaure in 2007 (refer Appendix A), because there will be no oversight on them. There is also the issue of the rights of employees of PMCs operating in countries that did not hire them, such as American corporation Blackwater operations in Iraq. When Blackwater operatives abused women, and children and tortured civilians as part of counter-terrorism operations in Fallujah, the Iraqi people there killed four of them. This violent reaction has ” been the only justice the employees received for their crimes.” The actions of these Iraqis was also not, strictly speaking, illegal because the PMCs were not military personnel allied with the Iraqi government.

PMCs are supposed to replace real military personnel, but their lack of training and professionalism has made them a hindrance to the militaries they are supposed to support. The modern PMCs are desperate to keep overhead costs low, and so “sources and trains private military personnel from Latin America with minimal education and no military experience”[4] and ” these agents are paid as little as $1,000 per month”⁴. This lack of proper training makes the individual operatives unable to cope with the intricacies of the modern battlefield, and the low pay creates frustration and lack of motivation. There is also a lack of professionalism among PMCs, because they lack reverence for the cause and organisation they are serving with. This has led to a loss of cohesiveness amongst mercenaries, who have nothing to unite them except their paychecks. The fact is PMCs can do jobs like transportation and administration, but cannot replace actual military personnel.

PMCs pose a myriad of dangers to the states that employ them, making them the double edged swords of modern warfare. The financial motivations of these companies, along with their lack of infrastructure and lack of scruples are what make PMCs so poisonous to the countries today. The PMC is a corporation, and so is driven solely by a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. Corporations like DynCorp make three billion dollars, paid mostly before their deployments. This guaranteed payment regardless of quality of work removes the need for self-discipline in DynCorp, this “earned the firm a trigger-happy reputation as its soldiers fought rebel groups in Columbia in the early 2000s.”[5] The other danger of PMCs is their lack of loyalty to a state or ideology, which has led to rogue PMCs conducting illegal operations abroad. There are several documented examples of mercenaries in Africa attempting government overthrows for unknown employers, one “group, led by Nick Du Toit and former SAS member Simon Mann, were planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea.”[6] (refer Appendix B) The greatest threat of PMCs are their ruthlessness when on deployment, which historically has led to several tragedies. When a crowd in Iraq(refer Appendix C) appeared to be getting agitated the PMCs used excessive violence to quiet them, and “Four Blackwater guards have been found guilty of killing 14 people and injuring 17 more in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.”[7] This shows clear the ruthless, and inconsiderate nature of PMCs, and why they present such a problem for professional armies today.

PMCs also pose several latent dangers which, while not obvious now, have the potential to be even more devastating. The possible dangers of the continued use of mercenaries are PMCs making warfare deceptively easy, and lobbying for increased military operations. As of today 468 private contractors have died in Iraq.[8] Yet these deaths are never displayed on news networks or in newspapers, which allows states to wage wars without their citizens becoming concerned. Wars becoming easier will lead to more of them, and a disconnect between the population declaring war and the conflict itself. The second possibility is more alarming because of its inevitability, PMCs paying elected representatives to wage wars and thereby manufacture the need for PMC contracts. “The Defence Contractors, along with the PMCs, are one of the interests groups with powerful control over policy and decision making in the US Congress.”[9] This may lead to a cycle of incessant warfare, where PMCs use their wealth to lobby Congress and other governments to declare a war, and use the profits they generate from that war to lobby for more. The dangers are not obvious now, but evidence does suggest that the PMCs will make them a reality.

Private military companies are abundant today, with the industry worth over $100 billion a year. These companies have fully integrated themselves into the US military, and so have a great deal of control over when, where and why the US wages war. PMCs do reduce the costs of a deployment, so it is impossible for countries to ban their use, nor should they be banned as they serve a useful function. However the use of mercenaries must be strictly monitored, and regulated to ensure they obey the rules of engagement. It is only when these companies operate unchecked that illegal actions occur, and the UN, NATO, ICRC, and various watchdog groups must keep these “dogs of war” on a tight leash.

Footnotes

[1], Todd S. Milliard, Overcoming Post-Colonial Myopia a Call to Recognize and Regulate Private Military Companies. Diss. Judge Advocate General’s School, (United States Army Journal, 2003) 2014.

[2] Additions to Geneva Convention (ICRC, 2014).

[3] Rolf Uesseler, Servants of War: Private Military Corporations and the Profit of Conflict, trans. Jefferson Chase (Brooklyn, New York: Soft Skull Press, 2008) 146.

[4] Private Military Companies:Beyond Blackwater.(The Economist, 2013)

[5], Luke McKenna and Robert Johnson, A Look At The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Armies (Business Insider)

[6] Adam Roberts, The Wonga Coup: The British Mercenary Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa (Egjustice.org, 2009)

[7] Meredith Clark, Blackwater Guards Found Guilty in Nissour Square Massacre (MSNBC ,2009)

[8] Private Military Companies: Beyond Blackwater. (The Economist, 2013)

[9] Mario Zorro, Defence Contractors and Private Military Contractors: Armourers, Mercenaries, and Politics (Mediums.com, 2011)

Works Cited

 “Additions to Geneva Convention.” Icrc.org. ICRC, 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Clark, Meredith. “Blackwater Guards Found Guilty in Nissour Square Massacre.” Msnbc.com. MSNBC, 22 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Isenberg, David. “Why Fighting Pirates Is Both Good and Bad for PSC.”The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.

Johnson, Luke McKenna and Robert. “A Look At The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Armies.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 26 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 Sep. 2014.

Milliard, Todd S. Overcoming Post-colonial Myopia a Call to Recognize and Regulate Private Military Companies. Diss. Judge Advocate General’s School, United States Army, 2003. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

“Private Military Companies: Beyond Blackwater.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Sep 2014.

Roberts, Adam. “The Wonga Coup: The British Mercenary Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa.” Egjustice.org. EG Justice, 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.

Uesseler, Rolf, and Rolf Uesseler. Servants of War: Private Military Corporations and the Profit of Conflict. Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2008. Print.

Zorro, Mario. “Defence Contractors and Private Military Contractors: Armourers, Mercenaries, and Politics.” Mediums.com. Mediums, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

While on our trip to Ottawa, the Canadian capital city with Guillaume Le Floch,  French exchange student, we wanted to get to the National War Museum. We could not find the way. So Nikhil and Guillaume approached two police officers to find the way. A chat ensued between the police officers and the two teens and they ended up snapping photos with them.

A few days later, on a long drive to visit a native aboriginal village, we wanted to stop at a coffee shop for a break. We did not spot one for a long time and hence I decided to pull off the road and search for one on the GPS. A police cruiser pulled up behind our car and an officer came to ask whether we needed any assistance. I rather sheepishly said that we were looking for a coffee shop to which the officer said that GPS will not help you as an outlet of Tim Hortons has recently opened and to reach there he advised us to turn back, drive 500 meters and turn right at the intersection. We thanked him and drove to the coffee shop for a much deserved break.

During the coffee break Guillaume said that he would never have asked a police officer in France for such an assistance. Modern police institution in France has remained an instrument of state, regardless of who happens to hold state power. During the Second World War (1940-45,) when France was occupied by Germany, the police became an instrument of suppression by the occupier. French police, from the time of the French Revolution to date have been used for handling various demonstrations by public and hence have an image of being unfriendly to the citizens. This has created a gap between the police and the people, especially the youth in France.

The first Canadian police officers recorded in the history books worked in Quebec City in 1651 and their duty was to act as night watchmen for the community. Today, policing in Canada is carried out at three levels: federal, provincial and municipal. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) operate at the federal level in all provinces and territories. At the provincial level, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Quebec Police and the Newfoundland Constabulary operate as provincial police services. Crime control and order maintenance are the primary police in which crime control activities occupy less than 25% of police time.

Community-based policing has gone a long way ahead in Canada and it involves a full partnership between the community and its police in identifying and reducing local crime. Crime prevention is the joint task of both the community and the police, and this joint effort is carried out within an interactive, cooperative and reciprocal relationship.

The increasingly multicultural nature of Canadian society is having an impact on Canadian policing. Complaints about the police by members of   visible minorities include over- policing of their communities, random stops and searches, discrimination in the use of police power, ‘blaming the victim’ when the victim is a member of a minority group and under-representation of minorities within police organisations. The governments at all levels have taken many initiatives that address police-minority relations.

One such initiative is the Youth Education Bureau of the police that works in partnership with the Health Department and the School Boards to create a positive and safe learning environment within the school system. The Officers of the Youth Education Bureau are responsible for initiating the SAFE (Schools Against Fearful Environments) programs to their individual schools. In this programme, the staff, parents and the police work together to ensure a safe environment at school and in the community. The programme ensures that the students are given a voice in their school. Any concerns raised is worked on through a focused plan of action. Each officer is assigned approximately 30 schools and they deliver various presentations and participate in special events hosted by their schools.

Project RAID (Reduce Abuse in Drugs), is a seven-part drug education and awareness program delivered by a team of dedicated officers at all middle and high schools.  The police have established a Children’s Safety Village, which receives students on a fun educational trip in grades 1 to 5 to educate the students on road and personal safety.

The officers visit various schools and interact with the students. For Grades 1 and 2 they cover bullying, street proofing/ pedestrian safety and stranger awareness. For Grades 3, internet security is added to the above list. For Grades 4 and 5, introduction to dangers of drugs and tobacco is added. For Grades 6, 7 and 8, drug abuse prevention, youth crime, youth gangs are in addition to the above.

In addition the Neighbourhood Policing Officers work with the area high schools to maintain a presence with the youth. They work directly with teachers, parents and the community to ensure that the youth are on the right path to a great future.

There is a system of co-op placements with the police for students of Grade 12 as well as those in college or university. Co-op placements follow school semesters and are available for 15 weeks. To be eligible for the co-op placement program, students must be attending college or university and be enrolled in a co-op or work term program at their institution of learning.

Police and the Canadian Forces through Army Cadet Movement are long-time partners in developing the youth through the Cadet Organisation Police School (COPS.).The mandate of this programme is to develop the youth into leaders within the community. Many of these graduates have progressed to become active members of the Police, while others have succeeded in different areas of the community.

The interactions between students and the police have ensured that there exist a warm, welcoming and community-oriented relationship between the citizens and the police. The confidence built up through these programmes have ensured a high level of trust in the police.

It is common for people of all ages to seek police assistance in any eventuality, at times for routine route directions or even a help to change a flat tyre. This is what every citizen of any country want their police to be.

Travelling to Europe and India from Canada, one faces the problem of carrying adapters, plugs, converters etc, all because Canada uses 110 Volt with Europe and India operating on 220 Volt. Thankfully nowadays most electronic and electrical equipment come suitably modified to work on both the voltages.

The complicated system of plugs and sockets followed in different countries adds to the vows an international traveller faces. Why can’t they design a system like the Universal Serial Bus (USB) used in all modern gizmos to make life easier? The switch positions as whether ‘up’ or ‘down’ is the ‘on’ position adds to the confusion. Why can’t they employ a system like Double Pull Double Throw (DPDT) switches as the ones used in computers and modern digital equipment? Why no standard is followed all over the world for a basic necessity?

In 1882, Thomas Edison’s General Electric Company was distributing Direct Current (DC) electricity at 110 Volt in North America. Transmission losses and generation costs led to the development of Alternating Currents (AC). Nikola Tesla was the first to devise a system of AC electricity at 220 Volt.   Most modern electronic systems like computers and cell phones all use DC. The charging systems in all these use AC as it is easy to convert AC to DC.

The original reason behind the decision to use 110 Volt was that the carbon filaments Edison was using in his light bulbs lasted far longer at this voltage. As technology improved and metal filaments became more readily available for light bulbs. One of Germany’s first electric utility companies decided to up the voltage to 220 Volt. In doing so they increased their overall distribution capacity and also reduced transmission loss.

Europe too began with 110 Volt too, just like North America today. It was deemed necessary to increase voltage to 220 Volt to get more power with less losses and voltage drop from the same copper wire diameter. At that time the North America also wanted to change, but because of the cost involved to replace all electric appliances, they decided not to.  At that time (1950s-60s), average North American household already had a fridge, a washing-machine, dishwasher, etc, but not in Europe.

In order to understand the power transmission system better, a look into the Ontario Province’s (where I live in Canada) electric supply system will benefit.

In Canada, electric supply is called ‘Hydro.’ Much of the initial electricity was generated by hydro-electric power plants. So the term ‘hydro-electric’ was shortened to Hydro.

Ontario’s electricity supply is a diverse mix of sources – nuclear, hydro-electric, gas, coal, wind and, to a much smaller degree, solar, wood waste and bio-gas.   52% of our electrical power comes from nuclear generation, 23% from hydro-electric plants, 19% from gas, four percent from wind, one percent from coal and a very small amount from other sources.

The power plant produces three different phases of AC power simultaneously. There are four wires coming out of every power plant, the three phases plus a neutral or earth (ground) – common to all three phases.

The three-phase power leaves the generator and enters a transmission substation at the power plant. This substation uses large transformers to convert the generator’s voltage (which is at the thousands of Volt level) up to extremely high voltages for long-distance transmission on the transmission grid. Typical voltages for long distance transmission are in the range of 155,000 to 765,000 Volt in order to reduce transmission losses.

This high voltage power is transmitted from the generating station to the electric sub-stations using towers with three wires for the three phases. Many towers have extra wires running along the tops of the towers. These are ground wires to attract lightning.

The electric sub-stations step down the voltage from ‘transmission’ to ‘distribution’ levels. The sub-station is equipped with transformers that step transmission voltages down to distribution voltages (usually 7,200 Volt). It has a ‘bus’ that can split the distribution power in multiple directions. It has circuit breakers and switches so that the substation can be disconnected from the transmission grid or separate distribution lines can be disconnected from the substation when necessary.

The 7,200 Volt power is transmitted from the electric sub-stations by power lines to the transformers outside the homes. Modern sub-divisions have underground power supply systems. Outside four or five blocks of houses, the transformers are housed in green boxes. In rural areas and in thinly populated sub-divisions, the electric poles hold a transformer in white drums.

These transformers step down the power to two phases of 110 Volt. 110 Volt cannot be transmitted over long distances without acceptable losses. This calls for more transformers; nearly one per every four to five households. The 220 Volt system saves on the transformer costs.

There are two wires running out of the transformer and a ground wires running to the house. The two wires from the transformer each carry 110 Volt in two phases. This arrangement allows usage both 110 and 220-Volt (two-phases combined) for appliances like cooking ranges, dryers etc. 110 Volt system uses two phases with a phase difference of 180 degrees to create 220 Volt and the 220 Volt system uses three phases with a phase difference of 120 degrees to create 440 Volt for use with high power domestic and industrial equipment. As the 110 Volt system uses only two phases, the AC frequency is generally at 60 Hertz as compared to 50 Hertz in the 220 Volt system which uses three phases.

Customers in Ontario are billed based on the electricity consumed and the time it is consumed. It is achieved by using ‘smart meters’ which measures power usage based on three time-of-use periods:

• Off-peak – when energy demand is low and less expensive sources of electricity are used
• Mid-peak – when the cost of energy and demand are moderate
• On-peak – when demand is highest and more expensive forms of electricity production are used.

Comparison between 220 Volt over 110 Volt

• From the safety view-point, 110 Volt having lesser voltage results in lesser shock and thus less injuries or death due to electrocution.
• 220 Volt generate more heat across a particular fault, thus more vulnerable to fire accidents. Burnt-out sockets where a plug is loosely fitted is a testimony to it.
• 220 Volt circuits tend to use thinner gauge wire, thus saving copper/raw materials.
• 110 Volt systems use less costly plugs and connectors when compared to the 220 Volt systems.

Until the standardisation is achieved, electricity, plugs and sockets will all remain a troubling element for any international traveller.