A Study On The Privatization Of Security After The Cold War

From the beginning of the 1990s, the role of the private sector in the field of security is increasing rapidly. Wherever in Asia, Eastern Europe, or Africa, South America there are conflicts, there are active figures of them. Their clients include not only nations, but also non-governmental organizations, regional organizations, and even the United Nations peacekeeping operations, who are dependent on their providing of security and logistical services to these companies. Since the event of September 11,2003, the United States’ war on terror pushed the role of these companies to the front of the world, so that people become fully aware of the existence of this industry, its role and a variety of consequences. Privatization of military service itself is not a new phenomenon. In the era before the rise of the modern state, mercenary activities had been very common throughout Europe. What is new of contemporary private security industry is the scale and form of its existence. The rise of the industry, on the one hand, yields the impact on the regional peace-building in the contemporary world in terms of helping local governments of the countries in civil wars to maintain their nations stability and reverse the situations, while they are doubtful to open the door for seizing the local resources by the intricate connection between the mother countries and those energy companies and mining companies. On the other hand, the private security industry has also changed the home country’s domestic and foreign models by acting as the government’s "diplomatic agent" to disturb the balance of institutional power distribution, which may affect the nature of the domestic political decision-making and transparency. Finally, the loopholes of monitoring and regulating these industry have also been a hot topic for the analysts. The current international legislation is outdated and useless, completely unable to restrict new private security industry, and, due to the obstruction of the large countries, it is almost impossible to develop new effective international rules in the short term. Therefore, domestic legislation in this case seems to be more reliable, enforceable and also stronger, but this requires national governments to have both the will and the regulatory supervision capacity. For those backward countries which themselves fall into civil strife, they cannot afford to constrain the actions on their land by foreign military companies.This thesis is divided into four chapters with a preface and a conclusion. The first chapter is about the theoretical framework of the privatization of security, tracing its history and development, and analyzing why the private security industry suddenly flourished in the 20th century and particularly the last 10 years. There are many reasons to explain its rising, at least including the end of the Cold War, which is the historical reason, and emerging of the new idea and theory. There is more than one approach of classification for the private security industry, but no matter what kind of approaches, there is always vague middle ground. As all social phenomena, the existence of the private security industry is also complex and cannot be divided by broad-brush approach.The second chapter analyzes the role played by the private security industry for the reconstruction of peace and order in the region though the specific cases. Taking the private military company Executive Outcomes as example, which is founded in South Africa and mainly operated in Sierra Leone, the chapter analyzes, in the case of the government to face domestic rebellion, the private military companies what to make a positive contribution in what ways, to where to be powerless, and what kind of the adverse consequences caused by introducing private military companies. The differences also are discussed between the United Nations peacekeeping operations and private military companies in terms of regional peacekeeping operations, and the prospects of the privatization of all peacekeeping operations and the possibility in the second section of this chapter.The third chapter, taking the United States as example, analyzes the impact of the industry on the large countries’ domestic affair and their diplomacy. Activities of private security industry have different effects on the weak and strong countries. The United States, as the world’s premier strong country, is also better than other countries in the use of private security companies for their foreign policy. Some foreign interference actions inconvenient to the government can be send to private military companies, thereby both to hassle public opinion and, they can get substantial benefits. But even so, we should also see that too much reliance on private security companies to act as agents of foreign policy could also erode the basis of the principles of American politics, namely the separation of powers. The private security industry fuels the power of the executive branch, which is the power of government, but weakens the legislative branch, that is, the supervisory role of Congress.The fourth chapter discusses the missing and vulnerabilities of the current legislative aspects of the industry. Although the rise of the industry is not long, it has been constantly negatively reported, mainly focused on its transparency and professional ethics which have been criticized most. Because it is a new thing, there are still many loopholes in the regulatory aspects, mainly lack of practical and effective laws. International legislation in this area can be described as non-existent, while the existing laws are outdated and cannot solve the current practical problems. Only way to restrain these companies is by domestic legislation, but for various reasons, the US-led Western countries do not want their companies to be too limited by international regulations. However, there is no doubt that it is necessary to strengthen the legislation and supervision for them in order to be more conducive to long-term development of the industry, or they will lose the public’s trust.Finally, the future of the private security industry is explored in the conclusion of the thesis. Although the private security industry has now lost most of their market contractions after the end of U.S. anti-terrorist wars, which does not necessarily mean the decline of the industry. The experienced companies will open the new path, gradually improve their image, and develop new markets and customers. In addition, the industry is bound to go through the process of its internal adjustment and merge with the survival of the fittest, and take a more mature and regulative commercial track.