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The refugee exodus into Europe: a preventable crisis and the inevitable demographic revolutiony, September 17, 2015
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| Since 2011, time and again we have suggested that a consortium of maritime PMCs should be contracted out to patrol the Mediterranean Sea in search for unseaworthy vessels and to deter human traffickers. The time to consider this course of action is now probably gone. On the other hand, the private security industry is increasingly lacking international hubris. Critically, the refugee crisis is at such volatile stage that it is perhaps more productive now to approach it as a state problem; one calling for at least these immediate state actions: |
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The Strange Case of the UK General Election 2015: A State Without a Vision of State Security, May 6, 2015
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| The British parliamentary election 2015 offers us an interesting case study about a general election in which state security did not figure as an election issue at all. By now, anyone who has been following this election, whether British or not, should have noted this peculiar phenomenon. This has set a dangerous precedent that we all learn to regret sooner than later.. |
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The new EU (and UK policy) of letting the boat migrants drown, November 1, 2014
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| The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom: "We do not support planned search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean." Ironically,1) the UK enjoys a lead in the maritime security sector; 2) the UK could have put forward the proposal to outsource search-and-rescue to a consortium of British firms; and 3) the UK could have thus exerted some form of informal control over the running of the contract. |
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British jihadists: the rise of ISIS and the downgrading of the British (and EU) passport, September 11, 2014
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| After William Hague spoke on the Commons, PM Cameron spoke of the seriousness of the problem and promised to do "absolutely everything we can" to protect the homeland. Nonetheless, a week later the news media revealed that plans to reduce the counter-terror budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by about fifty percent (from £30 to £15million) were going ahead. |
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Israel and Palestine, amidst all the pain and the relentless battle, July 29, 2014
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| If geopolitics was a playground, we could see the parties to this conflict behaving like selfish and stubborn children who do not care to listen to what fellow pupils, teachers, or parents say. Carrots or sticks do not work either. It seems both parties only answer and react to pain and suffering. . |
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Thirty thousand migrants and asylum-seekers reach Europe by boat in a single day, July 2, 2014
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| An operation of this size can only be done by a consortium of Private Military and/or Security Companies and via an umbrella contract of LOGCAP’s magnitude. But then again, we need to wait for the crisis to explode on our face before we can move to brainstorm properly real-world solutions. |
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SYRIAQ: The new Iraq conflict and the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL): the cost of failing to intervene in Syria, June 15, 2014
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| This is one of the big ones and will not simply go away, as there are dangerous 'social movement' and religious threads in the fabric of this conflict. If the U.S. and NATO fail to put their act together and act NOW, we will be fast heading to, at least, a violent low-intensity conflict spanning from the Middle East to Africa! |
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High Energy Prices and Private Security, November 10, 2013
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| The problem has generated the need to hire maritime security experts, but never on the scale entertained by many. In addition, governments are now deeply involved in maritime security operation in Somalia's coast, adjacent waters, and other affected regions. They do not bill energy corporations for the enhanced security of international waters. |
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India Mars mission vs UK aircraft carriers, November 5, 2013
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| About six years ago, when the contract with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance was eventually approved, the costs of building them were estimated at about £3.65 billion. Leaving aside design failures and delays, the usual post-tender drama associated with any infrastructure project in the UK , the costs are now estimated at about £6.2 billion. |
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Private Military Serving Dogs, October 23, 2013
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| Have in mind the figure of 11,000 public service dogs just in the UK and try to extrapolate that figure to the private sector, globally! Just between the leading suppliers of private military and security personnel (the U.S., the UK, South Africa, and Israel) there must be at least 20,000 private military serving dogs. |
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AAA British Private Security, April 16, 2013
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| The UK economy is at a standstill and the AAA credit rating of the country is for the time being history. However, an unseen benefit of the downturn is that the British private military sector is thriving and its AAA status will be maintained for yet another century. A 20% expansion of the British private military sector and 100 new corporate identities in possession of private military capabilities seems to be a moderate estimate of how much the UK private military sector is likely to grow by the end of the decade. |
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The British Ceremonial Army: A Shrinking Force in an Age of Uncertainty, March 1, 2013
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| Add all these points up, the shrinking numbers, the diluted meanings, the unimpressive pay soldiers take home, and we finish with a formula not for a smarter force, but for a ceremonial army. Official documents will not document a "private" component of British state defense and security likely to play a greater role by 2020. Which will be at the forefront of British defense and security by 2020, the ceremonial army or properly staffed PMCs and PSCs? |
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Made in China: a perilous cycle, February 2, 2013
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| Probably in the second decade of the 21st century, China might invade Taiwan. Perhaps sooner that that, China might engage in trial naval skirmishes with Japan . What the U.S. and Europe can do about it with their more than exhausted budgets, their faltering economic growth, and their growing dependence on the health of the Chinese economy. |
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Adverse Forces vs Private Military-Security Companies, January 18, 2013
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| A dichotomy in the private realm has emerged and implies that PMCs/PSCs now legitimately and formally collaborate with state and multilateral forces. In particular, these “security partnerships” are established with the aim of deterring or counteracting the predatory advances of Adverse Private Forces (APFs). |
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Mass migration, the Arab Spring, and multilateral management – with or without PMCs?, March 29, 2012
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| How much will change in the near future now that Syria is next on the list and Egypt's Spring is heading to an ambiguous Autumn. Some food for though?: Survivor of migrant boat tragedy arrested in Netherlands. Had a highly experience Private Military Company, or an umbrella contract involving several strategically located contractors with proven maritime skills, been involved, this tragedy would not have happened. |
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