Private Military Companies as 'Epistemic Communities'

The role of the private military company (PMC) remains one of the more controversial aspects of security studies. For many, they represent little more than corporate 'dogs of war', beneficiaries of misplaced munificence from donor countries unable or unwilling to intervene in failed states directly or in areas where the challenge of post-war reconstruction is particularly violent. Such moral objections, however well intentioned, have done little to assuage the exponential growth of such actors, fuelled in no small part by ongoing internecine strife in Iraq and Afghanistan. By equating PMCs with the ideal of an `Epistemic Community' however, this article suggests this normative ideal can help towards a functional understanding of the roles that such actors could and should perform in areas of civil conflict and post-war reconstruction.