| Summary: | The rise of Private Military Companies (PMCs) in the mid 1990s suggests a significant
threat to the states' traditional control of force. The impact of these companies on Africa has yet
to be fully investigated, and their roots in Africa's mercenary past are often ignored or
misunderstood. Sierra Leone's experience with three companies, Gurkha Security Guards
(GSG), Executive Outcomes (EO), and Sandline International provides an ideal setting in which
to both explore and pinpoint the transformation of freelance mercenaries into modern PMCs. At
the center of this debate is Peter Singer's suggestion that modem PMCs are something more than
mercenaries. Globalization, private authority, and legitimacy theories provide both guides to
such a study and explanatory tools helpful in understanding this radical development. While
most observers rightly conclude that such companies are not a direct threat to the state's central
role in international relations, or to its control of force, they nonetheless suggest a significant
realignment of international relations. EO's success in both Angola and Sierra Leone came amid
the company's all-out bid for legitimacy as a private provider of security on the African
continent and on the international scene as well. In the final analysis, PMCs did gain significant
acceptance, authority, and legitimacy in Sierra Leone, but whether this will transfer to a future
for mercenaries in Africa is not decided yet. Most indicators suggest that large-scale PMCs will
return as security providers in Africa. Because of this, these companies are indeed more than
mercenaries. === Arts, Faculty of === Political Science, Department of === Graduate
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