The PMCs discussion group and the AMPM news list
I run two venues for the discussion and distribution of information on international private military services. The AMPM list (Anonymous Mercenaries and Private Militaries list) is simply emailed news items about the industry, about mercenaries in general, and about places that have used/could use mercenaries. If you are more interested in discussing international private military services with others, then you might be interested in the PMCs discussion group, where we focus on Private Military Companies (PMCs) and Private Security Companies (PSCs).
The PMCs Discussion group
The PMCs discussion group is an EGroups listserv that I moderate. If you are interested in joining the discussion group you should contact me, Doug Brooks, at Hoosier84@aol.com . Please let me know who you are and the nature of your interest in the topic. The group includes people from PMCs, PSCs, NGOs, Human Rights organizations, governments, and of course academics.
Information and policies
The PMCs newsgroup is a discussion
group on the ethics, evolution and future of private militaries, mercenaries
and corporate armies. This newsgroup designed to serve anyone who is
interested in discussing the topic with others from NGOs, PMCs, universities
or with backgrounds in the field. The group will encourage the posting
of relevant articles, papers, web sites and opinions.
List Manager
The manager of this group is
Doug Brooks, a Ph.D. student with the Ridgway Center for International Security
Studies at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International
Affairs, and currently the Bradlow Fellow at the South African Institute
of International Affairs in Johannesburg.
Policy of Anonymity
There is no problem with those
who wish or need to remain anonymous. Those people have two options:
use an anonymous email address when posting (inform me of this option so
I can sign up the address onto the list), or they can send their posts through
me. Anyone posting who wishes to remain anonymous should post their
message to me (hoosier84@aol.com) and I will repost the note after removing
the identifying information.
New Members:
New members can be recommended
by existing members and should be sent for approval to Doug Brooks.
Please send recommendations to Doug at Hoosier84@aol.com.
Etiquette
Before anyone quotes people who post on this discussion list in outside reports, papers or articles, please contact those people directly (if they are posting openly, not anonymously) to clear it with them. Obviously, it is ok to quote posters in replies within this discussion group.
It is assumed that anyone who posts in the discussion group will not mind receiving emails from other group members, since posts always show the email address of the poster.
Of course, I have ultimate
control over who is on the discussion list, and in the unlikely event that
someone gets out of hand I will use my imperial authority to remove the annoying
member(s).
Registration
Members of the discussion group
will want to take advantage of the resources provided by the PMCs home page.
To do this you will need to "register" first. Go to the PMCs web page
(http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/pmcs
) and sign on as a "new user". There is a process where you fill
out their online form, they email you a registration number and then you
choose a password. The web site has useful PMC-related links and an
archive of past messages. I encourage members to share relevant web
sites with the list members; the system allows anyone to add new web sites.
Final clarification (?) note
If you are a member of the PMCs discussion list it probably means you are also on my "Anonymous Mercenary and Private Military" or (AMPM) email list - it is simply a list of email addresses of interested people to which I send relevant items that I come across in my normal research - or that people kindly forward to me.
Messages from the AMPM list
come from my regular email address (hoosier84@aol.com
) but I try to remember to add "AMPM" in the subject, whereas the messages
from the PMCs group will have [PMCs] in the header as shown in brackets.
If you "reply" to something you receive from the AMPM list, only I will receive
your message. If you "reply" to something from the PMCs group, your
message will go to everyone.
Doug Brooks
President
International Peace
Operations Association (IPOA)
Cell: (202) 297-9717
- Washington, DC
Personal email:
Hoosier84@aol.com
IPOA website:
www.IPOAonline.org
Personal home page:
www.geocities.com/hoosier84/dougtitle.html