Security governance and the private military industry in Europe and North America

Abstract

Even before Iraq, the grow ing use of private military contractors has been widely discussed in the academic and public literature. However, the reasons for the proliferation of private military companies and its implications are frequently generalized due to a lack of suitable theoretical approaches for the analysis of private means of violence in contemporary security. Consequently, this article contends, the analysis of the growth of the private military industry typically conflates two separate developments: the failure of some developing states to provide for their national security and the privatization of military services in industrialized nations in Europe and North America. This article focuses on the latter and argues that the concept of security governance can be used as a theoretical framework for understanding the distinct development, problems and solutions for the governance of the private military industry in developed countries.

Acknowledgements

The author should like to acknowledge funding from the United States Institute of Peace and the German Academic Exchange Service for this research.

Notes

1. The following will use apostrophes for ‘government’ and ‘governance’ when speaking of these ideal types as examples of governing structures, whereas government without apostrophes will refer to national executives and their agencies.

2. Measures of de-governmentalization have been proposed elsewhere, see for instance Klaus Dieter Wolf (2001) ‘Private Actors and the Legitimacy of Governance Beyond the State’, paper presented at the ECPR workshop ‘Governance and Democratic Legitimacy’, Grenoble 6–11 April, at http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/grenoble/ws5/wolf.pdf (accessed 10 April 2005). However, a detailed assessment of the degree of de-governmentalization is beyond the scope of this article, which first seeks to demonstrate the relevance of the governance concept for the analysis of transatlantic security.

3. More recently, statements argue that ‘[t]here is no predisposition towards either public or private sector’ and that the MoD is taking a ‘pragmatic’ approach. See ‘Public Private Partnerships in the MoD’, at http://www.mod.uk /business/ppp/intro.htm (accessed 6 June 2004).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elke Krahmann

Dr Elke Krahmann is a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Bristol. She has published widely on post-cold war foreign and security policy including New Threats and New Actors in International Security, (ed.), 2005; and Multilevel Networks in European Foreign Policy (2003). Her current USIP-funded research project examines the growing role of private military companies in international security.