Clinkerbuilt
Active member
PMCs threaten state sovereignty because they threaten the state’s monopoly on "the use of force". In the German Parliament, the conservative faction submitted a proposal in 2004 which stated that the privatization of the military “could lead to a fundamental shift” between a nation’s armed forces and its government as “the state’s monopoly on force could be called into question or even possibly eradicated.” By bringing PMCs into the picture, it creates a “hollowing out of the state,” where the military itself can become weakened due to its reliance upon private organizations to do things such as gather intelligence.
That sounds more like wagging the dog for a feel-good send-up, than anything real. This is due to the fact that, for a 1st World country to willingly allow a PMC to grow to the point where it can outgun its own military, said country will have long before surrendered effective control of its own sovereignty.
To put it another way, giving a loose collection of mercenaries more power to inflict violence over a state's apparatus than the state retains itself, makes that state a "failed state", almost by definition.