Sabancı University
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Social and Political Sciences Seminar

Outsourcing Security: The Rise of Private Military and Security Companies

Nikolaos Tzifakis

(University of Peloponnese)

Thursday, 13 December, 2012
13:30  FASS 2034

Dr. Nikolaos Tzifakis (PhD Lancaster University, UK) is Lecturer of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. He has research interests in International Relations theory, contemporary Balkan politics and EU external policies. His recent publications include articles in Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Ethnopolitics, European Foreign Affairs Review, Global Society, International Journal, Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, and Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. His edited book International Politics in Times of Change was published in 2012 by Springer. In 2008, he was awarded the Marcel Cadieux Distinguished Writing Award for his co-authored article with Professor Asteris Huliaras that was published in International Journal.

Abstract: The global trend for contracting out the supply of military and security services is steadily growing. Security is being transformed from a service for the public or common good into a privately provided service. The largest private companies in the field have developed more advanced know-how and greater material and human resources than the security agencies and armies of many sovereign states. In this respect, several analysts remark the restructuring of public–private relations in the domain of security and the occurrence of a broader shift from vertical, centralised government to horizontal, fragmented security governance. The lecture will argue that the implications of outsourcing security services to private agencies are not a priori positive or negative. It will explain that ultimately, everything boils down to the way public and private actors deal with the questions of ‘when’ and ‘how’ to go about contracting out security services.

P.S: The seminar will be held in English.