James Stout

Earlier on in the 20th century, the typical profile of one of these people would have been that they'd left the military in a state in the global north.

They had found, let's say, life or employment in the civilian world to be difficult for them.

And I've met a number of these people in a number of places.

Many of them went to parts of Africa thinking that they were going to work protecting wildlife.

and then ending up protecting large container ships instead, or attempting to work for a company that would one day let them protect wildlife or something similar.

Generally, the companies they end up working for are generally referred to as private maritime security companies, PMSCs, as opposed to PMC, private military contractor, right?

Although it is a version of the same thing.

Generally, these companies offer a shipping company a sort of package system

And it's not just armed security.

It also includes stuff like intelligence, crisis response and potential intervention.

I spoke to someone, for instance, who had worked for a shipping company and his major job was to deal with when the people were kidnapped off the boats.

He would then either go and rescue the people or negotiate with the people who had kidnapped them.

Yeah.

So mostly they're on large commercial vessels, right?

Cargo ships, oil tankers, things with an expensive cargo.

Although it is not unheard of for PMSCs.

For instance, you may have a maritime security company to secure your large mega yacht.

Sure.

Or another boat that you're worried about.

Yes, there was a shootout in the early 2000s, or a shootout, it's probably a shootout.