Internationalizing and Privatizing War and Peace : The Bumpy Ride to Peace Building

In this timely work, the author analyzes the use of private military firms and international interventions of the military. Outsourcing to the private sector takes missions away from the military, but the shift towards international intervention adds new, wider functions to the traditional role of defence.

What does the internationalization of the armed forces mean for their democratic control, and how can the privatization of the state monopoly of force be prevented? This book addresses the internationalization and privatization of war and peace to find answers to these two questions. If present trends continue, important security functions will be out of the control of national governments and international authorities and the state monopoly of violence is itself at stake. Due to the over-stretch of armed forces in various deployments in conflict, war and post-war, they have come to depend more and more on private military companies for logistic support, training, the repair and maintenance of weapons systems, the collection of intelligence information, interrogation of prisoners of war, and the supply of mail, food and uniforms. Hundreds of new private military and security companies have been established to grab a share of this bonanza. The case studies address UN peacekeeping, the emerging crisis reaction forces of the EU, the role of South Africa in African peace operations, the complex relationship on relief organizations and the military in humanitarian interventions, the use of the military in combating terrorism and the privatization of the military in the US and the UK.