The concept of a "rules-based world order" remains a discursive practice that masks the gap between the rhetoric of States and their actions. In particular, this gap is evident in the lack of regulation of private military companies (PMCs) and their most frequent use by those States that are most active in following the "rules" in the international environment. With nation-States losing their monopoly on coercion and international institutions no longer able to prevent compliance with norms, non-State actors increasingly represent indirect power tools. PMCs, positioned as technical performers, are actually transforming the world order, creating parallel systems of influence, which is why formal compliance with the rules is combined with their actual erosion. The article is devoted to the study of non-military aspects of the activities of private military companies. The aim of the work is to identify the non-military functions of PMCs in solving tasks beyond traditional military activities and to assess their impact on global political processes. The methodology is based on an analysis of the cases of PMCs, a comparative study of known contracts and other information in the public domain. The results demonstrate that PMCs are actively involved in logistics, critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, staff training, humanitarian operations, and other functions that allow nation states and corporations to delegate risks, minimize political costs, and circumvent formal restrictions. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematization of non-military practices of PMCs, which rarely become the subject of academic analysis, despite their growing importance, due to the concentrated attention of the public and experts on exclusively military functions. Despite the apparent ease of transferring "sensitive" security issues to private contractors, such commercialization creates risks, in particular, violations of humanitarian law, as well as possible dependence on private contractors, and, consequently, on their countries of origin in some cases. The article may be of interest to specialists in international relations, security and law.
Tsiba et al. (Thu,) studied this question.