BIAUMET, Gilles. Analyse des relations entre les compagnies privées militaires et de sécurité et les Nations Unies. Mémoire présenté en vue de l’obtention du grade de Master en sciences politiques, orientation Relations internationales. Université Libre de Bruxelles. Année académique : 2008-2009: PDF

RÉSUMÉ: Ce mémoire analyse la question de l’emploi possible de compagnies privées militaires et de sécurité - une appellation discutée dans le premier chapitre - par le Département des opérations de maintien de la paix de l’Organisation des Nations Unies, afin de soulager ce dernier dans ses missions. Le premier chapitre fait le point sur l’état actuel de la privatisation de la sécurité, afin de se défaire définitivement des confusions entre ses différentes occurrences, confusions nuisibles aussi bien au s ecteur qu’à une analyse pertinente. (...) La conclusion revient sur les éléments relevés dans le travail, et discute de manière critique la question de l’avenir de l’Organisation des Nations Unies. Le lecteur intér essé se référera pour de plus amples informations respectivement à ce travail, et à la large bibliographie qui lui est proposée.

 

CHAKRABARTI, Shantanu. Privatisation of Security in the Pot-Cold War Period: An Overview of its Nature and Implications. Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. IDSA Monograph Series, No. 2, December 2009: PDF

INTRODUCTION: The end of the Cold War was celebrated among many circles as an end to the conflict determined pattern of global relations, which would ensure greater cooperation and peace. Such optimism, however, died soon. While the number of inter-state conflicts certainly came down in the post-Cold War years, externally induced factors, as well as the rising incidence of collapsing internal institutions, witnessed the rise of intra- state conflicts of various types. One is perhaps forced to acknowledge, at least, the partial validity of the prophecy made by John J. Mearsheimer in 1990, in a different context, that we will soon be missing the order of the Cold War years as we leap into ‘untamed anarchy’.

 

CHAKRABARTI, Shantanu. Growth and Implications of Private Military Corporations. Journal of Defence Studies, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA, New Delhi), vol.1, no.2, 2008: TEXT (Full issue: PDF)

IMPLICATIONS FOR SOUTH ASIA: The involvement of the PMCs in direct operational activities in an intra-state conflict situation has new strategic implications for the entire region of South Asia, since the intra-state level conflicts in the region have become the main source of concern for the regional policy makers and strategists. While much work on the rising prominence of the PMCs and its strategic/legal/socio-political implications has been done by western scholars, their involvement and security and strategic implications in the Asian region have not been dealt with in an adequate manner so far. (...)

 

Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo. Empresas Transnacionales de Seguridad Privada en Colombia. Informe sobre las actividades de empresas transnacionales de seguridad privada de Estados Unidos en Colombia. 4 February 2008: PDF English | PDF Español

THE FRAMEWORK OF PLAN COLOMBIA: International military assistance for Colombia through private security transnational enterprises is not exclusive of the United States or limited to Plan Colombia. This "cooperation" also involves enterprises from other countries, such as Israel, with the full knowledge of said governments and Washington. these significant multiple-million dollar contracts are signed directly by the Colombian Ministry of Defense. (...)

 

International Crisis Group. Reforming Haiti’s Security Sector. ICG, Latin America / Caribbean Report No 28. September 18, 2008: PDF

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: (...) The process to create a modestly sized 14,000-strong Haitian National Police (HNP) by 2011 – a pivotal element of SSR – must be speeded up. The vetting of the approximately 9,000 active duty HNP officers has been much too slow and insufficiently transparent to address concerns that individuals responsible for human rights violations and corruption remain in the force. Administrative difficulties have limited recruitment and training. (...)

JORAS, Ulrike (ed), Lisa RIMLI, Susanne SCHMEID and Adrian SCHUSTER (ed). Private Security Companies and Local Populations: An Exploratory Study of Afghanistan and Angola. Swisspeace Working Papers, no. 1, April 2008: PDF [This working paper is a revised version of a report with the same title that was published at swisspeace in November 2007]:

ABSTRACT: This paper looks at how local populations perceive Private Security Companies (PSCs) and what the impact of their activities may be on peoples’ every day lives, examining the two country cases, Afghanistan and Angola. The role and effects of PSCs have been discussed from various angles in the past but little attention has been paid to the perspectives of the local population. The goal of this exploratory study is to provide some tentative insights into the perceived positive and negative, direct and indirect impact of PSCs on the local population. (...)

KOVAC, Matija. Legal Issues Arising from the Possible Inclusion of Private Military Companies in UN Peacekeeping. Master in International Affairs disseration. University of Geneva, Graduate Institute of International and Decelopment Studies, Geneva, 2008 ( PDF): click here | The author would prefer that for citation purposes the reader obtains a copy of and cites:

Kovac, Matija. Legal Issues Arising from the Possible Inclusion of Private Military Companies in UN Peacekeeping. Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, vol. 13 (2009), 307-374.

CONCLUSIONS: (...) The problem of jurisdiction over and the obligation to prosecute individual PMC-peacekeepers directly hired by the UN would, however, present a bone of contention that can hardly be resolved under the current customary or conventional rules relating to peacekeeping. The issue of individual criminal responsibility of the PMC-peacekeeper is a topic of its own, already partially addressed. ... The problem, of course, derives from the fact that in the scenario in which the PMC is hired directly by the UN, the concept of the sending state is substituted by the sending international organization, which, under current circumstances, is unable to guarantee the exercise of criminal jurisdiction over theindividuals involved in its operations. (...)

 

• LINDERMAN, Marc. Civilian Contractors under Military Law. Parameters, Autumn 2007, pp. 83-94: [The article is no longer available for free download; no abstract provided by the journal; thus only listed for reference purposes]: Journal page

MESSNER, JJ. CHAPTER 4 'Ethical security: The Private Sector in Peace and Stability Operations,' in Sabelo Gumedze (ed). Private Security in Africa. Manifestation, Challenges and Regulation. ISS Africa, Monograph No 139, November 2007: TEXT (html)

CONCLUSIONS: (...) The private sector will continue to have a central role in helping militaries carry out national and international policies. By understanding the industry`s potential, recognising how to ensure effective oversight and control, and fully utilising tools such as contracts and trade associations, even small militaries can find their missions achievable, or at the very least, significantly easier to achieve. The humanitarian benefits are enormous and this can only be a positive trend in international efforts at ending conflicts globally.

 

ORTIZ, Carlos. Private military contracting in weak states: permeation or transgression of the new public management of security? African Security Review, vol. 17, no 2, 2008, 2-14: PDFR | Copy also available at ISN ETH Zurich

CONCLUSIONS: (...) The article has shown both the permutations of some of the market principles underpinning the NPM logic as well as the deviations from the approach by reformers when targeting weak states with their initiatives. Even though the problems associated with this dual dynamic show that the convergence of the paradigm with security provision in weak states remains underdeveloped, it does Features provide opportunities. The privatisation of security in weak states also makes it necessary to investigate further the transnational dimension of contracting out under NPM. This would make it possible to determine the future direction of the NPM of security globally, and clarify the role of PMCs in public sector reform. .

 

ORTIZ, Carlos. Compañías militares privadas: hacia la transformación del estado y la nueva gerencia pública de la seguridad. Revista Académica de Relaciones Internacionales, núm. 9, Octubre 2008, 1-19: TEXT (Intro) |.PDF

RESUMEN: Las compañías militares privadas (CMPs) han generado muchas inquietudes en el público debido a su notoria participación en los conflictos de Afganistán e Irak. La amplia cobertura de sus actividades en los medios de comunicación ha contribuido a presentarlos como un nuevo fenómeno. Sin embargo, su surgimiento y proliferación se dan durante décadas de un proceso de transformación del estado y penetración gradual de su monopolio sobre el uso legítimo de la fuerza. Este artículo discute que la Nueva Gerencia Pública ha enlazado dinámicas históricas importantes de una manera que ayuda a explicar la continua legitimación y expansión del mercado de los servicios militares privados en el nuevo milenio. Se espera que el enfoque técnico del artículo contribuya a la apertura de un debate constructivo, ya que las tendencias actuales apuntan a la expansión de las actividades de las compañías militares privadas en el mercado hispano parlante.

 

ORTIZ, Carlos. The Private Military Company: An Entity at the Center of Overlapping Spheres of Commercial Activity and Responsibility, in Jäger, Thomas and Kümmel, Gerhard (eds). Private Military and Security Companies. Chances, Problems, Pitfalls and Prospects, Vs Verlag, 2007, pp. 55-68: PDF

CONCLUSIONS: Based on the conceptual perspective offered, it is possible to identify no less than 200 visible corporate identities in possession of PMC capabilities originating in the United States and the United Kingdom. ...Although some of them are "stand-alone" PMCs, the "hybrid" form predominates. Indeed, the perspective of the PMC business offered is hardly a static one. ...This perspective presents a more fluid yet accurate view of the PMC, the private militaryindustry, and the connections established with adjacent business sectors.

 

RICHARDS, Anna and Henry SMITH (Safeworld). Addressing the role of private security companies within security sector reform programmes. Safeworld, London, January 2007: PDF

OUTLINE: The way in which security is becoming increasingly privatised is examined in Part 1. Part 2 discusses PSCs and the potential concerns that their existence raises. Part 3 focuses on the questions that private security provision poses for SSR programmes, and Part 4 details recommendations for the way in which SSR can approach these problems,with particular reference to legislation and regulation, oversight, and service delivery. Finally, Parts 5 and 6 introduce a number of potential areas for research, and provide some background reading materials for further information.

 

SCHULZ, Sabrina and Christina YEUNG. Private Military and Security Companies and Gender. The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), and The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). The Gender and SSR Toolkit: Tool no 10, Geneva, 2008: PDF (English | For versions of this document in French, Arabic, Indonesian, Montenegrin or Russian, click here)

OVERVIEW: This tool addresses the gender aspects and challenges of a relatively new phenomenon: the privatisation of security on a global scale. So far, reliable research data is scarce. Moreover, much of the relevant information, such as companies’ standard operating procedures as well as the contents of most of their contracts, is strictly confidential. However, this must not lead to complacency. In order to ensure the effectiveness and long-term success of security sector reform (SSR) involving Private Security Companies (PSCs) and Private Military Companies (PMCs) it is indispensable to integrate gender aspects into all operations.

 

• SINGER, Peter. Militares privados: beneficios vs política publica Private Military Contractors. Estudios de Política Exterior, núm. 125. Septiembre / Octubre 2008, 65-77 [The article is no longer available as a free download; no abstract provided by the journal; thus only listed for reference purposes]: Journal page

STAPLES, Steven (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). No Bang for the Buck: Military contracting and public accountability. CCPA Report, Foreign Policy Series. Ottawa, Canada, June 11, 2007: PDF

MAIN FINDINGS: More than 40% of military contracts are “non-competitive,” and the use of uncompetitive contracting is on the rise. (...) Several Canadian and U.S. experts agree that non-competitive procurement processes result in increased military equipment costs and fewer industrial regional benefits, and that increased parliamentary oversight means soldiers “get better, more effective equipment, sooner and cheaper.”.