THE MARKET FOR FORCE

The legitimate use of force is generally presumed to be the realm of the state. However, the flourishing role of the private sector in security over the last twenty years has brought this into question. In this book Deborah Avant examines the privatization of security and its impact on the control of force. She describes the growth of private security companies, explains how the industry works, and describes its range of customers – including states, NGOs, and commercial transnational corporations. She charts the inevitable trade-offs that the market for force imposes on the states, firms, and people wishing to control it, suggests a new way to think about the control of force, and offers a model of institutional analysis that draws on both economic and sociological reasoning. The book contains case studies drawn from the US and Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East.

DEBORAH D. AVANT is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Global and International Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. She is the author of Political Institutions and Military Change: Lessons From Peripheral Wars (1994) and of numerous articles.

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THE MARKET FOR FORCE

DEBORAH D. AVANT

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press,
New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521615358

© Deborah D. Avant 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

ISBN-13 978-0-521-85026-1 hardback
ISBN-10-0-521-85026-6
ISBN-13 978-0-521-61535-8 paperback
ISBN-10-0-521-61535-6

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Dedication

For my boys

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Contents

List of figure and tables		page ix
List of acronyms		x
Acknowledgements		xiii
1	Introduction	1
	Private security and the control of force: the question	3
	Private security and the control of force: the answer	5
	A transnational market for military and security services	7
	Mercenaries, privatization, and other slippery terms	22
	The current market compared	26
	Why the current market?	30
	Plan of the book	38
2	Private security and the control of force	40
	Clarifying the control of force	40
	How should privatization affect the control of force?	45
	State contracts for private force	57
	State regulation of private security	65
	Non-state financing and the control of force	70
	Methods and claims	77
3	State capacity and contracting for security	81
	Sierra Leone's contracts for military services	82
	Croatia's contracts for military services	98
	US contracts for military services	113
	Comparisons	138
4	Dilemmas in state regulation of private security exports	143
	The United States	146
	South Africa	157
	The United Kingdom	167
	Transnational markets and political trade-offs	175
5	Private financing for security and the control of force	178
	Transnational corporate financing and the control of force	180
	Humanitarian relief in war zones	192
	Conserving nature in the state of nature	204
	Comparisons	215
6	Market mechanisms and the diffusion of control over force	219
	Market mechanisms	219
	Diffusion of control	228
	Institutional innovations	240
	Competing mechanisms, conflict, and change in history	245
	Discussion	251
7	Conclusion	253
	Institutional mechanisms and political processes	254
	Globalization, the state, and the sovereign system	257
Bibliography		265
Index		302

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Figure and tables

Figure
1.1	Contracts in battlespace	page 17
Tables
1.1	Military and security companies operational between 1990 and 2004	10
1.2	Dimensions of the public/private choice	24
1.3	The variety of arrangements for allocating violence	25
3.1	US military aid appropriations for Croatia, 1995-2003	107
3.2	Effects of private provision of adviceand training on the control of force	140
4.1	Export control trade-offs	176
5.1	Effects of private financing on the control of force	216

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Acronyms

ACCS	African Center for Strategic Studies
ACOTA	African Contingency Operations Training Assistance
ACRI	African Crisis Response Initiative
ANC	African National Congress
BP	British Petroleum
CARTS	Army Readiness Training Program
CDF	Civil Defense Forces
CONDO	Contractors on Deployed Operations
CPA	Coalition Provisional Authority
DFARS	Federal Acquisitions Regulations for Defense
DFID	Department for International Development
DOD	Department of Defense
DPKO	Department of Peacekeeping Operations
DRC	Democratic Republic of Congo
DSB	Defense Science Board
DSL	Defense Systems Limited (aka ArmorGroup)
DTAP	Democracy Transition Assistance Program
EAST	Eagle Aviation Services and Technology
ECOMOG	Monitoring Group set up by ECOWAS
ECOWAS	Economic Community of West African States
EO	Executive Outcomes
EU	European Union
FAR	Forces Armées Rwandaises
FARC	Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
FARS	Federal Acquisition Regulations
FCO	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
FDI	Foreign Direct Investment
FMF	Foreign Military Financing
FMS	Foreign Military Sales
FND	Frederick, Nicholas, and Duncan
FY	financial year

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