Legal control of the private military corporation

Two years ago a newspaper article of a few paragraphs reporting on an attempted coup caught the attention of the reader. The paragraphs referred to a private military firm being hired to assist in the overthrow of the government. Such an event sat uncomfortably with the reader and led to some informal discussions with colleagues. It did not seem right that a private individual could hire an army to overthrow a government. It goes against the premises of Western liberal worldview in which the state is the center and all powers within its territory are subject to it. It also contradicts the notion that the only violent challenge to a state can come from other states or from a popular or at least domestically instigated uprising.