NGOs and the price of governance: the trade-offs between regulating and criticizing private military and security companies

Abstract

The privatization of security involving the transfer of tasks of military and policerelated services to private military and security companies (PMSCs) is becoming increasingly important, but it has also been subject to criticism in academic and policy circles. In this paper, we examine the position of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the two Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries where the majority of PMSCs are based: the United States and the United Kingdom. Using the concept of framing and drawing on interviews as well as an analysis of documents, we find the conventional view of NGOs as either passive objects of government and governance or as the moral voice of society in opposition to governments ill-fitting. Instead, their behaviour with respect to PMSCs is much more ambivalent and reflective of a broader shift within the security realm towards neoliberal governmentality and a normalization of private security. By taking part in multistakeholder dialogues about rules and norms for PMSCs, NGOs not only contribute to the regulation of the security industry but also circumscribe their own ability and that of non-participating NGOs to criticize and contest ongoing developments.