The power to construct international security: On the significance of private military companies

Millennium: Journal of International Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 803-826

  Leander, Anna ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 22544454177     PISSN: 03058298     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/03058298050330030601     Document Type: Review

References (117)

1. PMCs refers to private firms selling military services including combat, consulting and logistics. The decision to include firms offering any of these three services under the same rubric reflects the blurred distinctions between these activities in contemporary warfare. The reason for preferring PMCs rather than, for example, 'private security firms', is that it has become the most commonly used expression in the field. See P. W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003);
2. and David Isenberg, A Fistful of Contractors: The Case for a Pragmatic Assessment of Private Military Companies in Iraq (British-American Security Information Council, 2004), 15.
3. For a more extensive discussion of different definitions, see Anna Leander, Eroding State Authority? Private Military Companies and the Legitimate Use of Force (Rome: Centro Militare di Studi Strategici, forthcoming 2004), ch. 3.
4. Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1998).
5. This is a fundamental claim of constructivism. See for example. Emanuel Adler, 'Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics', European Journal of International Relations 3, no. 3 (1997): 319-363;
6. Ted Hopf, 'The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory', International Security 23, no. 1 (1998): 171-200;
7. Jef Huysmans, 'Revisiting Copenhagen: Or, On the Creative Development of a Security Studies Agenda in Europe', European Journal of International Relations 4, no. 4 (1998): 479-505;
8. Stefano Guzzini, 'A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations', European Journal of International Relations 6. no. 2 (2000): 147-182;
9. R. B J. Walker, Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993);
10. Jutta Weldes, Constructing National Interests: The United States and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999);
11. and Alexander Wendt, 'Constructing International Politics', International Security, 20, no. 1 (1995): 71-81.
12. Peter Bacharach and Morton S. Baratz, Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice (New York: Oxford Universitv Press, 1970).
13. Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View (London: Macmillan, 1974).
14. Pierre Bourdieu, Language et pouvoir symbolique (Paris: Fayard, 2001).
15. Such a wider approach to power has already been integrated into IR. For the general statement, see Stefano Guzzini, 'Structural power: the Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis', International Organization 47, no. 3 (1993): 443-78.
16. For the use of Bourdieu and an introduction to his terminology for IR, see Richard K. Ashley, 'Imposing International Purpose: Notes on a Problematique of Governance', in Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges: Approaches to World Politics for the 1990s, eds. Ernst-Otto Czempiel and James Rosenau (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989), 251-290;
17. and Guzzini, 'Reconstruction.
18. See also Guzzini's article in this Millennium issue.
19. For an overview see Isenberg, Fistful.
20. P. W. Singer quoted in Miami Herald, 7 March 2003. The numbers are contested. According to Isenberg, the ratios are 50 military personnel to every contractor in the 1991 Gulf War; 10 to 1 in Iraq in 2003. Isenberg, Fistful. The base line is that no one knows, as there are no central national let alone international registers. The Pentagon cannot tell how many private contractors are employed by the US alone.
21. See P, W., 'Outsourcing War', Foreign Affairs 84, no. 2 (2005): 119-132, 128.
22. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Privatizing Combat, the New World Order, (Washington D. C.: The Centre for Public Integrity, 2002):5 [http://www.publicintegrity.org/ bow] (accessed 29 April 2005).
23. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Private Military Companies: Options for Regulation (London: 12 February, 2002) [http://www.fco.gov.uk/ Files/kfile/mercenaries,0.pdfl] (21 April 2005), annexe A.
24. Juan Carlos Zarate, 'The Emergence of a New Dog of War: Private International Security Companies, International Law and the New World Disorder', Stanford Journal of International Law 34, no. 1 (1998): 75-162.
25. David Shearer, 'Private Military Force and Challenges for the Future', Cambridge Review of International Affairs 13, no. 1 (1998): 80-94, 92.
26. Christopher Coker, 'Outsourcing War', Cambridge Review of International Affairs 13, no. 1 (1998): 95-113, 111.
27. Kevin O'Brien, 'PMCs, Myths and Mercenaries: The Debate on Private Military Companies', Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies 145, no. 1 (2000): 59-64;
28. and Didier Bigo, 'Les entreprises para-privées de coercition: de nouveaux mercenaires? [The Para-Public Firms of Coercion: Are They New Mercenaries?]', Cultures et Conflits, no. 52 (2004): 1-3.
29. Jac Lewis, 'French Blueprint Reveals New-look Industry Links,' Jane's Defence Weekly, 22 April 1998.
30. Coker, 'Outsourcing War', 111.
31. Enrique Bernales Ballesteros (replaced by Shaista Shameen in July 2004), suggested a reformulation of the definition of mercenary to exclude the bulk of private military companies, which he called by this name. General Assembly UN, Report on the Question of the Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impending the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-determination (A/58/115) (New York: UN, 2003) [http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/mercenaries/annual.htm] (21 April 2005).
32. Deborah Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
33. Anthony Barnett, 'Scandal-hit US Firm Wins Key Contracts', The Observer, 13 April 2003;
34. and Isenberg, Fistful.
35. Jeremy Bigwood, 'DynCorp in Colombia: Outsourcing the Drug War', [www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=672] 23 May 2001 (accessed 29 April 2005);
36. Robert D. Novak, 'We're Already at War in Colombia', Houston Chronicle, 19 February 2003;
37. and Singer, Corporate Warriors, 335-6.
38. For a more extensive list of examples see ICIJ, 'Greasing the Skids of Corruption', [http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow] (accessed 29 April 2005);
39. and Deborah Avant, 'The Privatization of Security and Change in the Control of Force', International Studies Perspectives 5, no. 2 (2004): 153-157.
40. Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy (New York: Russel Sage Foundation, 1980).
41. William Hartung, 'Corporate Welfare for Weapons Makers: The Hidden Costs of Spending on Defense and Foreign Aid', Policy Analysis, no. 350 (1999): 1-26.
42. P. W. Singer, 'Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry and Its Ramifications for International Security', International Security 26, no. 3 (2001/2): 186-220.
43. Isenberg, Fistful.
44. Colonel Steven J. Zamparelli, 'Competitive Sourcing and Privatization: Contractors on the Battlefield', Air Force Journal of Logistics 23, no. 3 (1999): 1-17;
45. and Richard Cardinali, 'Does the Future of Military Logistics Lie in Outsourcing and Privatization? Accountants - the New Gatekeepers of War-time Operations', Work Study 50, no. 3 (2001): 105-110.
46. La Commission de la Défense Nationale et des Forces Armées, Rapport d'information sur l'externalisation de certaines tâches relevant du ministère de la défense presenté par Michel Dasseux (Paris: Assemblée Nationale, n. 3595, 2002).
47. Singer, 'Outsourcing War'.
48. Steven Rosenfeld, 'Forget Halliburton', [http://progressivetrail.org/ articles/040117Rosenfeld.shtml] (accessed 29 April 2005).
49. Guzzini, 'Structural Power', elaborates on the distinction between agent and structure level power ('governance' in his terminology), which need to be considered in combination in a power analysis.
50. It also elaborates on the link between the two levels. For a similar use of governance, see jean François Bayart, Le gouvernement du monde: Une crititque politique de la globalisation (Paris: Fayard, 2004).
51. William Connolly, Identity\Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1991);
52. Guzzini, 'Maintenir les dilemmas de la modernité en suspens: analyse et éthique poststructuralistes en Relations Internationales', in L'éthique de l'espace politique mondiale: métissages interdisciplinaires, ed. Klaus-Gerd Giesen (Bruxelles: Bruylant, 1997);
53. and Jef Huysmans, 'Discussing Sovereignty and Transnational Politics', in Sovereignty in Transition, ed. Neil Walker (Oxford: Hart, 2003), 209-227.
54. For the use of Bourdieu's approach, see also Anna Leander, 'A Nebbish Presence: Undervalued Contributions of Sociological Institutionalism', in Global Political Economy: Contemporary Theories, ed. Ronen Palan (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 184-197,
55. and 'The Cunning of Imperialist Reason: Using a Bourdieu Inspired Constructivism in IPE', (COPRI) Working Paper, no. 33 (2002).
56. Pierre Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire: L'économie des échanges linguistiques (Paris: Fayard, 1982).
57. For an illustration of this type of analysis applied to an economic field, see Bourdieu, 'Le Champ Economique', Actes de la Recerche en Science Sociales, no. 119 (1997): 48-67.
58. Singer, Corporate Warriors, 148.
59. I b i d.
60. Zamparelli, 'Competitive Sourcing'.
61. Firm homepages; ICIJ, Searchable Database [http:// www.publicintegrity.org/bow] (accessed 29 April 2005);
62. and Isenberg, Fistful.
63. Didier Bigo, 'When Two Become One: Internal and External Securitisations in Europe', in International Relations Theory and the Politics of European Integration: Power, Security and Community, eds. Morten Kelstrup and Michael Williams (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 171-204.
64. For example Ó Tuathail begins his account of the significance of categorising and constructing territory and geo-political space with a story of how Irish peasants resisted integration into British cartography by assassinating the map-maker sent out to place them on the map. Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space (London: Routledge, 1996), 1.
65. Christian Miller, 'US Pair's Role in Bombing Shown', Los Angeles Times, 16 March 2003.
66. Deborah Avant, 'Privatizing Military Training.' Foreign Policy in Focus 7, no. 6 (2002): 1.
67. Singer, Corporate Warriors, 196.
68. Jane Mayer, 'What did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?' New Yorker, 16-23 February 2004.
69. ICIJ, 'Privatizing Combat', 3. http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow
70. David Isenberg, 'Corporate Mercenaries: Profit Comes with a Price', Asia Times, 19 May 2004, 39.
71. John Lovering, 'Loose Cannons: Creating the Arms Industry of the Twenty-first Century', in Global Insecurity, ed. Mary Kaldor (London: Pinter, 2000), 147-176, 167-8.
72. BENS' web pages contain both overviews of its activities and the reports and studies. In this context, the more relevant include the mentioned 'Agenda for Policy Makers' and the 'Tail to Tooth Commission' for reforming (read outsourcing and privatising) defence strategies and policies [www.bens.com] (24 April 2005).
73. [www.mpri.com] (21 April 2005).
74. Ed Soyster quoted in Leslie Wayne, 'America's For-Profit Secret Army', New York Times, 13 October 2002.
75. ICIJ, 'Privatizing Combat, 9. http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow
76. 'Nick Paton Walsh, US Privatises its Military Aid to Georgia', The Guardian, 6 January 2004.
77. Rosenfeld, 'Forget Halliburton'; http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040117Rosenfeld.shtml
78. 'US Privatises';
79. and, Novak 'We're Already at War in Colombia'.
80. BBC, 'The UK has Warned UK Company against Recruiting Mercenaries to Work in Ivory Coast', BBC, 2 April 2003;
81. and Gordon Bell, 'South Africa: Eyeing Tough New Mercenary Law', Reuters 12 February 2005.
82. This was accompanied by a move away from narrowly defined strategic studies (i.e., military) to security studies, at least in Europe. See for example Bill McSweeney, Security, Identity and Interests: A Sociology of International Relations. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
83. or Stefano Guzzini, '"The Cold War is what We Make of It": When Peace Research Meets Constructivism in International Relations.' In Contemporary Security Analysis and Copenhagen Peace Research, ed. Stefano Guzzini and Dietrich Jung, (London, New York: Routledge, 2004): 40-52.
84. Avant, 'Privatization', 153-157;
85. Virginia Haufler, 'International Diplomacy and the Privatization of Conflict Prevention', International Studies Perspectives 5, no. 2 (2004): 158-164;
86. and Ken Silverstein, Private Warriors (New York and London: Verso, 2000).
87. Singer, Corporate Warriors;
88. ICIJ, 'Privatizing Combat'; http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow
89. and Leander, Eroding State Authority?.
90. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Private Military Companies; http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/mercenaries,0.pdf
91. La Commission de la Défense Nationale et des Forces Armées, Rapport;
92. and Caroline Homqvist, 'Private Security Companies: The Case for Regulation', SIPRI Policy Paper, no. 9 (2005).
93. Avant, Market for Force;
94. and Singer, Corporate Warriors.
95. 'Job Opening: Los Alamos Manager' CBS News [http:/ /www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/02/tech/printable552068.shtml] (29 April 2005)
96. It has been split into two separate agencies: the for-profit firm QuinetiQ and Dstl (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), which is an agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. Dan Matthews, 'DERA Privatization Plan Comes under Scrutiny', Jane's Defence Weekly, 14 March 2001, [http://www.dera.gov.uk/newsite/home_2.htm] (21 April 2005).
97. ICIJ, 'Privatizing Combat', 9. http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow
98. Singer, P. W. 'Outsourcing War'.
99. Susan Strange, 'The Name of the Game', in Sea Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed, ed. Nicos Rizopoulos (New York and London: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1990), 238-274, 262-265;
100. and Stephen Gill, 'Market Civilization and Disciplinary Neoliberalism, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 24, no. 3 (1995): 399-423.
101. Peter Evans, 'The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization', World Politics 50, no. 1 (1997): 62-87.
102. Mary Kaldor, 'Introduction, in Restructuring the Global Military Sector: New Wars, eds. Mary Kaldor and Basker Vashee (London: Pinter, 1998), 3-33.
103. Janice Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extra-Territorial Violence in Early Modern Europe. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994): 145.
104. ICIJ, 'Marketing the New "Dogs of War"' [http:// www.publicintegrity.org/bow] (accessed 29 April 2005).
105. Ed Soyster quoted in Jermey Lovell, 'Privatised Military the Way for the Future', Reuters, 9 May 2003.
106. See for example David Shearer, 'Private Armies and Military Intervention', Adelphi Paper, no. 316 (1998);
107. Doug Brooks, 'Messiahs or Mercenaries? The Future of International Private Military Services.' International Peacekeeping 7, no. 4 (2000): 129-144;
108. Garrett Mason, 'UN Peacekeeping and the Private Sector.' IPOA Newsletter, no. 1 (2004): 1 and 7;
109. Doug Brooks, The Challenges of African Peacekeeping. Testimony to the House Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on Africa. US House of Representatives, (2004) (Accessed 29 April 2005).
110. Jim Fisher-Thomson, 'Lawmaker Says U.N. Peacekeeping in Africa Not Up to Task. Rep. Royce suggests private military corporations might have role to play.' [http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive/2004/Oct/13-833902.html] (Accessed 13 October 2004);
111. Steven Brayton, 'Outsourcing War: Mercenaries and the Privatization of Peacekeeping', Journal of International Affairs 55, no. 2 (2002): 303-329;
112. and David Isenberg, 'Combat for Sale: The New, Post-Cold War Mercenaries', USA Today, no. March (2000): 12-16.
113. Doug Brooks, 'Write a Cheque, End a War: Using Private Military Companies to End African Conflicts', Conflict Trends, no. 1 (2000): 33-35.
114. Theresa Whelan, 'Remarks to IPOA Dinner', Washington D.C., 19 Nov. 2003 [www.ipoaonline.org/content/Whelantranscript.pdf] (21 April 2005).
115. Shearer, 'Private Armies', 10.
116. The growing weight of PMCs may in fact work against long term settlements. This point is argued in detail in Anna Leander, 'The Market for Force and Public Security: The Destabilizing Consequences of Private Military Companies.' Journal of Peace Research 42, no. 5 (2005, forthcoming).
117. Daniel H. Deudney, 'The Philadelphia System: Sovereignty, Arms Control and Balance of Power in the American States-Union, circa 1787-1861', International Organisation 49 (1995): 191-228.