Private Security Companies: Transforming Politics and Security in the Czech Republic

187 Pages·2015·1.16 MB·English

by  Oldřich Bureš (auth.)

Private Security Companies
Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations
Series Editors: Zlatko Šabicˇ, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Petr
Drulák, Institute of International Relations, Czech Republic
The main purpose of this series is to provide and sustain excellence in IR
research in and on Central Europe. It aims to provide readers with high-
quality results by scholars who are conducting IR research from the Central
and Eastern European (CEE) perspectives that will resonate within the IR com-
munity as well as practitioners in and beyond the region.
The series is purposely interdisciplinary and welcomes studies which examine
IR topics from the CEE perspectives in international politics. These perspec-
tives are shaped by, inter alia, the experience of small states versus great
powers’ interests, regionalization, national minorities, the role of interna-
tional institutions, the position between the West and East broadly defined,
as well as intellectual traditions.
Titles include:
Viacheslav Morozov
RUSSIA’S POSTCOLONIAL IDENTITY
A Subaltern Empire in a Eurocentric World
Ondrej Ditrych
TRACING THE DISCOURSE OF TERRORISM
Identity, Genealogy and State
Petr Kratochvíl and Tomáš Doležal
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Political Theology of European Integration
Oldˇrich Bureš
PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANIES
Transforming Politics and Security in the Czech Republic
Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–34600–1 Hardback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a
standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to
us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and
the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Private Security
Companies
Transforming Politics and Security
in the Czech Republic
Oldˇrich Bureš
Head of the Center for Security Studies, Metropolitan University
Prague, Czech Republic
© Oldˇrich Bureš 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-47751-4
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-56991-5 ISBN 978-1-137-47752-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137477521
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations x
1 A Novel Strategic Plan 1
Book overview and structure 7
2 Global Security Assemblages: Enhancing Assemblage
Thinking with Bourdieu’s Sociology 13
Assemblage thinking 13
Bourdieu’s sociology and the analysis of (private) security 21
Epistemological and methodological remarks 28
3 Private Security Assemblage(s) and Powers of Private
Security Companies 35
Key characteristics of the private security assemblage
in the Czech Republic 35
Powers of private security companies 64
4 Transforming Politics 80
Lack of specific law for regulation of the provision
of private security services 80
Reversed revolving doors: Too much or too little
political interest in private security companies? 87
The party as business firm model 98
5 Transforming Security 102
Security for whom? 102
Security for which values? 112
How much security? 122
Security from what threats, by what means, at what
cost, and in what time period? 126
v
vi Contents
6 Limits and Opportunities of Further Privatization of
Security 132
Inherent governmental functions and limits
of privatization of security 133
Areas with pressures for further privatization of security 143
Areas where the public security provision is (perceived)
as inadequate 149
Areas where the public security provision is (perceived)
as inefficient 153
Support activities not directly related to the main tasks
of public security forces 154
7 Concluding Remarks 157
Notes 161
References 166
Index 174
Boxes, Figures, and Tables
Boxes
1.1 Strategic Plan of ABL for 2009–2014 2
3.1 Differences between PSCs and PMCs 38
3.2 Definitions of the term ‘private security company’ in
the Czech Republic 40
3.3 Explanations of the relatively high number of PSCs 42
3.4 Explanations of the existence of 16 PSCs’ associations 48
3.5 Benefits of membership in a PSCs’ association 52
3.6 Reasons for the significant presence of multinational
PSCs 57
3.7 Employment of disabled persons by PSCs 67
3.8 Decline of symbolic power of the Czech state 69
3.9 PSCs’ contracts for public administration bodies 71
3.10 Cultural power of PSCs operating in the Czech
Republic 75
4.1 (In)adequacy of self-regulation of PSCs’ activities 85
4.2 Reasons for the hitherto absence of specific legal
regulation of PSCs’ activities 89
5.1 Commodification of security 105
5.2 Effect of PSCs’ activities on the state’s monopoly on
the use of violence 115
5.3 Reputation of private security companies 119
5.4 Selected marketing texts from PSCs’ website
presentations 123
5.5 Impact of PSCs’ activities on the relationship between
the state and the citizen 129
6.1 Inherent governmental functions in the security field 137
6.2 Services that may be provided by PSCs in the future 144
vii
viii List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables
Figures
5.1 Number of registered crimes in the Czech Republic
(1991–2013) 126
6.1 Number of prisoners in the Czech Republic
(1993–2012) 153
Tables
3.1 Number and types of PSCs and number and average
salaries of their employees (1997–2013) 37
3.2 Number of PSCs according to prevailing type of
services offered 61
Acknowledgments
Earlier versions of several chapters in this book were previously
published as journal articles, including ‘Private Security Companies
in the Czech Republic: Rearticulating the Security Field and Trans-
forming Politics’, Security Dialogue 45, no. 1 (2014): 81–98; ‘Vliv
soukromých bezpecˇnostních spolecˇností na vnímání bezpecˇnosti
v Cˇ eské republice’ [Impact of Private Security Companies on
Perceptions of Security in the Czech Republic], Bezpeˇcnostní teorie a
praxe, no. 2 (2013): 47–58; ‘Inherentní funkce státu a oblasti další
možné privatizace bezpecˇnosti v Cˇ eské republice’ [Inherent Govern-
mental Functions and Areas of Further Security Privatization in the
Czech Republic], Obrana a strategie 13, no. 1 (2013): 5–18; ‘Analýza
privatizace bezpecˇnosti v Cˇ eské republice s využitím modelu globál-
ních bezpecˇnostních montáží’ [Global Security Assemblage Analysis
of the Privatization of Security in the Czech Republic], Czech Jour-
nal of Political Science 20, no. 1 (2013), 4–31; and ‘Private Security
Companies in the Czech Republic: An Exploratory Analysis’, Central
European Journal of International and Security Studies 6, no. 2 (2012),
49–68. I would therefore like to thank the editors and anonymous
reviewers of these journals for their comments and suggestions.
This book would not have been possible without the constant love,
patience, and indulgence that I received from my wife Kateˇrina and
the infectious energy emitted by our two beloved children Eliška
and Vojta. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my
gratitude to several colleagues for their expert advice and enduring
support: Mitchell Belfer, Molly Dunigan, Francesco Giumelli, Elke
Krahmann, Anna Leander, and Ulrich Petersohn. I am grateful to
Palgrave’s anonymous reviewers for their comments on the early pro-
posal of the book and to Palgrave’s editors Eleanor Davey Corrigan
and Hannah Kaspar for their patience and professionalism. Special
thanks to the representatives of private security companies and pub-
lic officials, who kindly agreed to be interviewed for this book project.
The usual disclaimer applies. Finally, I would like to acknowledge
the financial support of the Czech Science Foundation under the
standard research grant number P408/11/0395.
ix