Private military services in the UK and Germany: Between partnership and regulation1

Controversial cases such as the aborted coup in Equatorial Guinea and the employment of private contractors in the Abu Ghraib prison have brought the proliferation of private ‘mercenaries’ to worldwide attention. However, the privatization of military security is more diverse and complex than generally suggested. Specifically, one needs to distinguish between the use of private mercenaries in developing countries and the privatization of military services in Europe. Focussing on the latter, this article proposes that the privatization of military services in industrialized countries can be understood in terms of a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’. As a consequence, the emergence of a private military industry in Europe is not only characterized by distinct forms of governance failure; European governments have also developed new modes of governance to control the industry. Using the United Kingdom and Germany as examples, this article examines two modes in particular: public private partnerships and governmental regulation

Securing the state, undermining democracy: internationalization and privatization of western militaries

Changes in the field of security since the 1990s triggered off a number of still continuing military transformations in liberal democracies. Since their armed forces were designed for the purposes of the bipolar Cold war security constellation, they have been “redesigned” according to the new tasks as agreed upon in the new NATO strategic concepts or the assignments for the Europeanized forces within the European Union: Conflict prevention, crisis intervention, counter-terrorism have been added to the range of deployment missions. This recent transformation of the armed forces is pushed ahead in the political spirit of new public management well known from other policy areas in the OECD countries. The proclaimed reforms are guided by efficiency and effectiveness principles only, issues of democratic control and integration of the armed forces into the society are marginalized in the political discourse. But integration and cooperation within international organizations is only one of the two trends detrimental to democratic control of the military; increasing contracting with Private Security and Military Companies is the other. Contracting is intended to reduce political and financial costs and risks for Western governments. The authors argue that, in the long run, both trends of privatization and internationalization, though they seem to run into opposite directions from a purely etatist perspective, result in the joint effect of exacerbating democratic control and accountability of security policies. This point is illustrated by the employment of private military companies by the US government agencies and US military and the reform of the German armed forces. -- Seit Ende des Ost-West-Konflikts befinden sich die westlichen Streitkräfte in einem anhaltenden Transformationsprozess. Waren die Streitkräfte zuvor an der bipolaren Sicherheitskonstellation des Kalten Krieges ausgerichtet, werden sie seit 1990 umstrukturiert, um neue Missionen zu erfüllen, wie sie in den strategischen Konzepten der NATO oder den Aufgabenfeldern der Europäischen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik definiert sind. Unter den Vorzeichen eines New Public Managements vorangetrieben, das in den letzten Jahrzehnten als ökonomisch inspiriertes Reformprinzip bereits zahlreiche andere Politikfelder der OECD-Staaten geprägt hat, sind die Umstrukturierungen der Streitkräfte vorwiegend an Effizienz- und Effektivitäts-Gesichtspunkten orientiert. Fragen der demokratischen Kontrolle und der Integration des Militärs in die jeweilige Gesellschaft werden dagegen im politischen Diskurs vernachlässigt. Zwei Entwicklungstrends kennzeichnen derzeit die westliche Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik: die Integration und Kooperation westlicher Streitkräfte im Rahmen von internationalen Organisationen sowie der zunehmende Einsatz privater Sicherheitsunternehmen. Obwohl Internationalisierung und Privatisierung von Sicherheitspolitik in einer staatszentrierten Perspektive auf den ersten Blick gegenläufige Tendenzen einer Stärkung der Exekutive einerseits und der Schwächung des Staates andererseits zu markieren scheinen, tragen jedoch beide zu einer Schädigung der nationalstaatlichen Demokratie bei. Diese These erläutern die Autorinnen anhand des vermehrten Rückgriffs der US-amerikanischen Regierung auf private Sicherheitsanbieter sowie der Transformation der deutschen Streitkräfte.

Boyhood, initiation, homosexual behaviour and homosexuality in European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

In this article, boyhood in European Pleistocene is decribed. After the introduction, it describes the terms "child" and "boy". In the section about the first people in Europe I have included the first people in Greece and Italy as well because most people think by these countries only to the welknown classical period. Then the existence and live from children e.g. boys will be described which is following by thze adventures from children e.g. adolescent boys in the caves. Here we come to the erotic art, made by the adolescent boys and the possible homosexual behaviour of these boys. Then we coming to cannibalism in relation to initiation-rites and at the end to the subject of inition itself and the question of there was homosexuality

Evaluating the Labor-Market Effects of Compulsory Military Service

We identify the causal effect of compulsory military service on conscripts’ subsequent labor-market outcomes by exploiting the regression-discontinuity design of the military draft in Germany during the 1950s. Unbiased estimates of the effect of military service on lifetime earnings, wages, and employment are obtained by comparing men born before July 1, 1937 (the "White Cohort") who were exempted from compulsory military service to men who were born on or shortly after this threshold date and hence faced a positive probability of being drafted. We find that the putative earnings advantage and wage premium of those who served in the armed forces vanish when selection effects are taken into account.causal effect, quasi-experimental estimators, conscription

Noticing the self: Implicit assessment of self-focused attention using word recognition latencies

Self-focused attention is difficult to measure. Two studies developed an implicit measure of self-focus based on word recognition latencies. Self-focused attention activates self-content, so self-focused people should recognize self-relevant words more quickly. Study 1 measured individual-differences in self-focused attention. People scoring high in private self-consciousness recognized self-relevant words more quickly. Study 2 manipulated objective self-awareness with a writing task. People who wrote about distinctive self-aspects (high self-awareness) recognized self-relevant words more quickly compared to people who wrote about a neutral topic (low self-awareness) and people who did no writing (control). The discussion considers implications for future research on self-focused attention

A Dichotomy of Conflicting Duties

This paper explores the dichotomy of a soldier’s conflicting duties found in contemporary conflicts such as Iraq or Afghanistan. These two conflicting duties, the traditional duty of kill-destroy and the mutually exhaustive duty of help-build, often collide at the tactical level in the complex environment of modern conflicts. When these two duties collide, it holds potential for tragic consequences that go beyond the tactical level where they occur and can have strategic impact

Regional income distribution and human capital formation: A model of intergenerational education transfer in a global context

The demographic problems in developed countries are getting more and more important. Very low fertility rates especially among skilled individuals will soon become relevant for a country's economy. Also of importance is education of children. Since there is an increasing demand for skilled workers, the positive correlation between social background and education worsens the situation. Therefore family planning as well as fertility providing and educational measures are of major importance for regional decision makers. We define in our model the optimal number of children considering the income and education of their parents by using a Cobb-Douglas utility function which implies that children and consumption are complementary goods. Children are considered to be a differentiated good with respect to their education. Therefore, we distinguish between high educated and low educated children. After deciding the optimal number of children, the education level of children has to be determined. We assume that only one parent is responsible for the education. Further we presume a negative correlation between the opportunity costs of educating a child and their parent's qualification. Since we consider the parents income and education, many cases result. Regional policy makers have the possibility to change individual decisions regarding offspring by creating monetary incentives. As wages and therefore family income are exogenous, the regional governments have only two policy measures left: either child allowance and/or scholarships. Considering the population's preferences, regions may optimize the number and structure of children. --population policy,education,qualification,factor proportions,globalization

Local Determinants of Crime: Do Military Bases Matter?

Using a unique panel dataset, we estimate the impact of the military base realignments and closures (BRACs) in Germany on the intensity of criminal activity surrounding the base. We use a fixed-effect model to account for time-invariant unobservables in our panel of 298 military bases for the period 2003–2007. We also take advantage of geographic information system software to mitigate estimation issues arising from the spatial nature of the dataset. Estimation results are presented for total crime and four other subcategories: breaking and entering, automobile-related crime, violent crime, and drug-related crime. The estimates indicate that there is no effect of BRACs on criminal activity surrounding the base. We also confirm existing findings in the literature on the determinants of crime.Armed forces; BRAC; deviant behavior; geographic information system

Ambitious framework nation: Germany in NATO: Bundeswehr capability planning and the "Framework Nations Concept"

Berlin is pursuing ambitious plans for security and defence, with significant potential for the Bundeswehr and European partner militaries. In the long-term, the Bundeswehr could well become Europe’s indispensable army, with Germany as a "framework nation" contributing decisively to NATO's readiness. This will require the future German government to accept an unaccustomed politico-military leadership role. It will also be necessary to increase defence spending for the long term. (author's abstract