CIAO DATE: 07/2013
June 2013
Danish Institute for International Studies
The military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq saw the involvement of an unprecedented number of private actors in the form of Private Military and Security Companies. Some have argued that this signifies the privatization of the risk of waging war. Others see private sector involvement as a golden opportunity for states to engage in low intensity conflicts without straining national defence budgets. As the two wars wind down, it seems relevant to take stock of the empirical and theoretical developments accompanying the phenomenon of private force and to look at what may be next in line for Private Military and Security Companies - 'PMSCs' - as the defence contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq dry up. This DIIS Working Paper looks at the state of the art in the study of PMSCs and argues that one of the next emerging markets for private commercial security actors is found in the provision of intelligence products for both state and market clients. The global nature of PMSCs and the move towards the production of knowledge and intelligence products, as opposed to armed services, will require not only new conceptualization and an increased focus on the cognitive domain - but also new ways of thinking about the blurring of the lines between state and market. The importance of this blurring has recently been illustrated by the alleged U.S 'PRISM project' where the U.S government appears to have suspended the need for FISA warranty in order to give the intelligence community access to data stored by commercial companies. Ironically, the man who blew the whistle on the PRISM program, Edward Snowden, was an employee of a private military contractor.
Resource link: Private Military and Security Companies – from Mercenaries to Intelligence Providers [PDF]