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Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry
This thesis examines how the legal indeterminacy of international law facilitates state evasion of accountability through the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) as proxies in extraterritorial operations. Focusing on China’s deployment of PSCs to safeguard Belt and Road Initiative...
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613431544152064 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Pouliot, Alexandrya |
| author_browse | Pouliot, Alexandrya |
| author_facet | Pouliot, Alexandrya |
| author_sort | Pouliot, Alexandrya |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This thesis examines how the legal indeterminacy of international law facilitates state evasion of accountability through the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) as proxies in extraterritorial operations. Focusing on China’s deployment of PSCs to safeguard Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, it argues that ambiguities within the doctrines of attribution and responsibility under the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) create a permissive legal environment that enables states to outsource coercive functions without incurring formal liability. Drawing upon Hobbesian Realist theory, Carl Schmitt’s concept of the sovereign exception, and insights from Critical Legal Theory (CLT), the study demonstrates that legal ambiguity is not a flaw but a structural feature of the international legal order: one that perpetuates and conceals power asymmetries amongst states. China is presented as a ‘cautious Schmittian sovereign,’ strategically invoking or suspending legal norms to advance geopolitical aims while maintaining formal insulation from accountability under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and state responsibility frameworks. By combining doctrinal analysis with critical theory, the thesis situates the Chinese case within a broader pattern in which international law functions less as a constraint and more as an instrument for managing visibility, shaping legality, and preserving sovereign discretion in the contemporary international order. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3700 |
| institution | American University in Cairo (Egypt) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:35:59.828Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| publisherStr | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| spelling | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3700 Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry Pouliot, Alexandrya This thesis examines how the legal indeterminacy of international law facilitates state evasion of accountability through the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) as proxies in extraterritorial operations. Focusing on China’s deployment of PSCs to safeguard Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, it argues that ambiguities within the doctrines of attribution and responsibility under the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) create a permissive legal environment that enables states to outsource coercive functions without incurring formal liability. Drawing upon Hobbesian Realist theory, Carl Schmitt’s concept of the sovereign exception, and insights from Critical Legal Theory (CLT), the study demonstrates that legal ambiguity is not a flaw but a structural feature of the international legal order: one that perpetuates and conceals power asymmetries amongst states. China is presented as a ‘cautious Schmittian sovereign,’ strategically invoking or suspending legal norms to advance geopolitical aims while maintaining formal insulation from accountability under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and state responsibility frameworks. By combining doctrinal analysis with critical theory, the thesis situates the Chinese case within a broader pattern in which international law functions less as a constraint and more as an instrument for managing visibility, shaping legality, and preserving sovereign discretion in the contemporary international order. 2025-12-10T08:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2643 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3700/viewcontent/Masters_Thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain sovereignty privatization private military and security industry legal indeterminacy doctrines of attribution Law |
| spellingShingle | sovereignty privatization private military and security industry legal indeterminacy doctrines of attribution Law Pouliot, Alexandrya Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title | Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title_full | Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title_fullStr | Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title_short | Law as Performance: Sovereignty, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Chinese Private Security Industry |
| title_sort | law as performance sovereignty legal indeterminacy and the chinese private security industry |
| topic | sovereignty privatization private military and security industry legal indeterminacy doctrines of attribution Law |
| url | https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2643 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3700/viewcontent/Masters_Thesis.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pouliotalexandrya lawasperformancesovereigntylegalindeterminacyandthechineseprivatesecurityindustry |