https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1566-7652
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ABSTRACT
Does growing reliance on private military and security companies (PMSCs) lead to the re-configuration of the state as a security and defence actor in Europe? Building on the multiple-networks-approach in organisation theory (Padgett and Powell), the current paper develops an analytical approach for studying the rise of new organizational forms in interstitial spaces via mechanisms including extension and differentiation; fusion and hybridity; transposition and refunctionality; and multivocality. The empirical analysis focuses on the rules and practices of Vesper Group - a PMSC working closely with the Swedish government. Several findings are reported. First, a new organizational form seems to be emerging as a result of the ongoing multiple network dynamics – national defence entrepreneurial firm. This is a type of a firm different from mainstream PMSCs in that it is owned by venture capital companies from their home state and also in that it is closely associated with its respective state in terms of its personnel policies, expertise and operational goals and scope. Second, the case of Sweden’s Vesper Group and its cooperation with the Swedish government indicates that some EU member states may also be in the process of structural and institutional mutation as providers of defence and crisis management capabilities.
Acknowledgments
Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Diploface workshop in Copenhagen, August 28-29, 2022, at the workshop “Global governance? New dynamics and new approaches” at Webster Vienna Private University on October 6, 2022 and in the Research seminar at the Department of Political Science at Comenius University in Bratislava on March 30, 2023. I am grateful for comments and suggestions from Caroline Batka, Niklas Bremberg, Stephanie Hofmann, Katarzyna Jezierska, Kamila Koníková, Markus Kornprobst, Xymena Kurowska, Darina Malová, Sean McFate, Erik Láštic, Anna Leander, Iver B. Neumann, Viliam Ostatník, Johannes Pollak, Anatoly Reshetnikov, Martin Senn, Max Steuer, Ole Wæver, Ayşe Zarakol and the two anonymous reviewers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Wagner Group is often referred to as “mercenaries” or as a PMSC. Neither of these labels works. While Wagner is closely associated with Russia, the constitution of the Russian Federation forbids PMSCs and, thus, Wagner is not a legally registered PMSC. In January 2023, the US department of Treasury designated WG as a “significant transnational criminal organization” (see https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1220, this and all other web-sites quoted in this article were accessed on 4 July 2023). Given the atrocities perpetrated by WG on the frontlines in the ongoing war in Ukraine and in many countries in Africa, this designation is fitting. Taking a step further, the French parliament adopted a resolution on 10 May 2023, calling on the European Union to designate WG as a “terrorist group” (see https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/05/10/french-parliament-calls-on-eu-to-list-wagner-as-terrorist-group_6026136_5.html). As these points indicate, WG does not fall within the category of PMSCs discussed in this article. What is more, after the events of 23 June 2023 – often described as an attempted coup or mutiny – when units of the Wagner Group temporarily occupied the headquarters of Russia’s Southern military district in Rostov on Don/Russia and also marched in the direction of Moscow, it was at the time of writing uncertain as to how the relations between the Russian state and the Wagner Group were going to develop.
2 The private military and security industry has been experiencing dynamic growth worldwide in the last two decades and it is expected to dynamically grow further. According to a report by Aerospace & Defense News quoted by BBC, it is expected to grow by more than 100% globally in the current decade (i.e. from about $224bn in 2020 to about $457 bn in 2030. See https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60669763.
3 Nodes are defined as rules and/or actors of which a network consists.
4 As Padgett (2012, p. 170) points out, “recombinant innovation in organizations is produced … when one or more social relations are transposed from one domain to another, mixing in use with relations already there. This transposition-induced hybridity is raw material for invention, but this is only the first step. Refunctionality is when transposition leads not just to improvement in existing uses but, more radically, to new uses – that is, to new potential objects with which to interact and transform.”
5 See www.vespergroup.se
6 The content analysis approach in the current article follows Kippendorff (Citation2004) defining it as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use” (Kippendorff Citation2004, p. 18). The aim was to identify statements and other material on the web-site, Facebook pages and in media articles that would indicate the presence of hybridisation, re-combination and transposition of rules and practices. The analysis also focused on self-presentation of Vesper Group on its Facebook page and on its web-site by exploring texts, visual material and links to other material and making replicable and valid inferences about its functions, activities and publicly promoted identity (see also Blassnig et al. Citation2023).
7 Posts wishing readers happy holidays or posting pictures of “Friday dogs” – dogs resting or playing in the company corridors – were not included in the analysis. They were studied anyway and at least one of the dog pictures did provide useful information on a VG motto that is not found anywhere on the web-site but is (or was) apparently featured on one of the office walls in the VG headquarters in Stockholm (and seen in a post behind a playful dog posted on Facebook on 25 May 2018): “Audaces fortuna adiuvat” (Fortune favours the bold).
13 Working with a number of Swedish authorities including the defense ministry, foreign ministry and the migration agency in August 2021, Vesper Group evacuated 1100 persons with a connection to Sweden and another 1000 persons connected with Norway and Denmark (in total 2144 people were evacuated). About 30 Vesper contractors from Sweden and Denmark worked for 9 days in conducting the evacuation process. See “Stockholmsföretag evakuerade 2000 personer från Afghanistan”, Dagens Industri, 15.11.2021
15 Ibid.
17 See Samarbete om personal mellan Försvarsmakten och VesperGroup, article on the web-site of the Swedish armed forces, 11 July 2017 (available at https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/aktuellt/2017/07/samarbete-om-personal-mellan-forsvarsmakten-och-vespergroup/)
18 See Samarbete om personal mellan Försvarsmakten och VesperGroup, article on the web-site of the Swedish armed forces, 11 July 2017 (available at https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/aktuellt/2017/07/samarbete-om-personal-mellan-forsvarsmakten-och-vespergroup/).
19 See article “Film från jobbet I Kabul” (Film from a job in Kabul) in Arbeidsgivarrelationer (Employer relations), newsletter of the Swedish armed forces, March 2020 (https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/siteassets/5-information-och-fakta/for-arbetsgivare/nyhetsbrev/nyhetsbrev-arbetsgivarrelationer-nummer-1-2020.pdf)
20 See “Arbetsgivare berättar: Vesper Group”, Försvarsmaktens arbetsgivarrelationers nyhetsbrev, 2018 (https://vespergroup.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Arbetsgivare_FM.pdf).
21 See Samarbete om personal mellan Försvarsmakten och VesperGroup, article on the web-site of the Swedish armed forces, 11 July 2017 (available at https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/aktuellt/2017/07/samarbete-om-personal-mellan-forsvarsmakten-och-vespergroup/).
22 See “Nytt samarbete med tidigare Must-chefen Gunnar Karlson” (available at https://vespergroup.se/nytt-samarbete-med-tidigare-must-chefen-gunnar-karlson/).
23 See Karlsson, G.: Spaning på säkerhetsåret 2022, 2 December 2021 (available at https://vespergroup.se/spaning-pa-sakerhetsaret-2022).
24 See https://vespergroup.se/varflod-av-sakerhetsrapporter-vi-behover-starka-var-sakerhet and https://vespergroup.se/tankar-om-dronare-och-sakerhetsskydd/
25 This was reported by the daily newspaper Expressen on 26 April 2018 – and a link to the article was re-posted on VG’s Facebook site.
26 As Berndsson and Stern (Citation2013, pp. 72–74) report, while, for instance, US Aid workers had to put up with frequent “macho” style behavior of US private contractors protecting their field-work, the Swedish NGOs and public agencies could rely on a somewhat more sensitive approach by Swedish PMSCs personnel (e.g. not entering the house of local contacts and staying in the car). Nevertheless, the operations of Swedish NGOs and public agencies in the field was still altered due to a heavy security framework of rules and routines introduced into their daily practices.
27 “At work in Baghdad”, interview with Vesper Group contractor Torbjörn, 29 June 2018 (available at https://vespergroup.se/en/at-work-in-baghdad/).
28 See Samarbete om personal mellan Försvarsmakten och VesperGroup, article on the web-site of the Swedish armed forces, 11 July 2017 (available at https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/aktuellt/2017/07/samarbete-om-personal-mellan-forsvarsmakten-och-vespergroup/).
31 See statement by Vesper Group CEO, Erik Lewin, 21 April 2021 (available at https://vespergroup.se/en/trip-to-tripoli-words-from-our-ceo/)
32 Building on Goffman’s (Citation1974) concept of frames as collectively shared definitions of situations and objects allowing for the emergence of shared meanings in a society, framing is understood here as purposeful evoking of specific frames with the aim of shaping public perceptions of particular situations or events.
33 See interview with Joel – the manager of Vesper Group team protecting the Oscarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden, 13 April 2022 (available at https://vespergroup.se/med-uppdrag-som-ritar-om-den-svenska-sakerhetskartan/)
34 An alternative plausible explanation for such a change in the public profile of VG that there was a change of personnel in charge of Facebook-communication at VG.
35 For ideal-typical features of PMSCs, see Singer (Citation2003, pp. 45–47) – it needs to be noted, though, that Singer uses the term “private military firm”.