PMCs are immoral. The individuals they employ have no commitment to maintain moral standards in war zones, so don’t.
Private military companies (PMCs) provide security services in war zones around the world. Hired as contractors, they provide governments and private organisations with services to train personnel in combat as well as man power for the protection of nouns (people, places, things). They work constantly on the boundary between right and wrong.
Employees of PMCs are referred to as mercenary, individuals motivated to take part due to desire for significant private gain and instigated by the promise or payment of material composition. Principals of right and wrong motivate companies that are moral. Incentives of profit do not align with the stimuli of right and wrong. Therefore companies that are driven by profit cannot be moral. This point was highlighted in the film The Shadow Company when one former mercenary said had worked for a PMC because it was “all about excitement, war is the ultimate game”. This mentality sees fighting as fun, as a form of entertainment, not as the most drastic way to solve disagreements. Furthering this was Mr Bell’s belief that many PMCs employ anyone who will join them, as they merely want to fulfil their contracts. They their employ individuals motivated by violence, who want to be in a war zone, rather than those believe in the causal factors initiation the war. Companies who are motivated by profit, and who’s employees are also motivated by profit and incentivised by aggressive urges, are not companies fighting for the principles of right and wrong. PMCs violate the principles of just intentions. Therefore PMCs are clearly not moral in their rationale.
PMCs are not likely to limit their behaviour. Soldiers are strictly limited in what they are allowed to do when in a war zone, both legally and morally. Their behaviours reflect not only themselves but also the nation they are serving. A soldier wearing a Canadian flag stitched upon their soldier embodies the morals of Canada as well as their own. Soldiers must behave inscrutably and are given incentives and impediments to do so. PMCs conversely have no such loyalties or confines. They represent themselves; very rarely do they carry the responsibility of representing an organisation. They are ununiformed, they bare no government affiliations. Thus, they are much less likely to limit their actions. There is a less clear line between right and wrong. They have no guiding state, no moral compass they must represent.
Additionally, the blurred lines of command in battle for PMCs further the lack of moral guidance. There is strict hierarchical structure and protocol in the military, guiding each individual. Given PMCs are accountable to a firm not a government, in the heat of the moment the collapse of protocol creates chaos, that is often ultimately unpunishable. Given the individual mercenary have no enforced guiding principle; there is no requirement for their actions to follow a moral compas. Leading to unmoral actions becoming more probable.
On the other hand, moral norms are highly subjective. The norms that are generally considered as moral in the West (where is currently no violent conflict) are often quite different to those of other states and cultures. Therefore when entering a state with no functioning government, it is often hard to determine what is considered to be the code of behaviour in that nation and situation. If rebels or locals behave in a certain way, is it wrong for mercenaries to retaliate in the same way? Additionally when in intense situations that question right and wrong, what gives individuals at home in the west, who’s governments won’t join the war effort for fear of losing soldiers, the right to judge whether an action is moral or not.
PMCs are driven purely by profit. They have no specific ties limiting their behaviour. Therefore no matter the conditions within the state they are working are, they cannot be considered moral organisations, as they are not concerned with principles of right and wrong. It is debatable as to whether government’s military efforts are moral or selfish, but it is unquestionable that PMCs are not moral.