SALW and Private Security Companies in South Eastern Europe: A Cause or Effect of Insecurity?
SALW and Private Security Companies in South Eastern Europe: A Cause or Effect of Insecurity?

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Security and defense, Military policy
Published by: The South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC)
Keywords: European Union; Stability Pact for South East Europe; Serbia; private security industry
Summary/Abstract: This report surveys the development, conduct and regulation of the private security industry in the eight countries currently party to the European Union’s Stability Pact for South East Europe. The privatization of security in the region that followed the end of Communism in the early 1990s mirrors a global trend in which security roles that traditionally fell exclusively within the realm of the state have been gradually outsourced to private actors. In its early years, the industry was initially unregulated and displayed problems seen in other economic sectors emerging from a centrally driven socialist command economy. Some parts of the industry were strongly associated with organised criminal elements, as well as in some circumstances extreme nationalist politics. Over the last decade the sector has begun to professionalise, as the governments of the region have made legislative efforts to introduce controls. Whilst in most cases the members of the private security industry do not pose a direct threat to the states or citizens of South Eastern Europe (SEE), significant concerns remain, ranging from cases of improper criminal, political or paramilitary affiliations, to the improper use of force in individual cases.

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