Quaderni di Centro Ricerca Sicurezza e Terrorismo Direttore Ranieri Razzante Michele Turzi The effects of Private Military and Security Companies on local populations in Afghanistan A case-study based analysis on the impact of the large presence of private firms on Afghans Pacini © Copyright 2019 by Pacini Editore Srl Realizzazione editoriale Via A. Gherardesca 56121 Ospedaletto (Pisa) Responsabile di redazione Gloria Giacomelli Le fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume /fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall’art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941 n. 633. 31.10.2018 The effects of Private Military and Security Companies on local populations in Afghanistan A case study-based analysis on the impact of the large presence of private firms on Afghans TURZI, Michele Table of contents Table of contents .................................................................................................. i Summary ............................................................................................................. ii List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction and Background ....................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Structure of the thesis 2 1.3 The Private Military and Security Industry 3 1.4 The Afghan case 8 2. Methodology and Theoretical Framework ................................................ 12 2.1 Methodology 12 2.2 Theoretical Framework 13 3. PMSCs in Afghanistan ................................................................................. 19 3.1 The Private Industry in numbers 19 3.2 A wide variety of PMSCs 22 3.3 The Afghan Affair 26 4. The impact of PMSCs on Afghans .............................................................. 31 4.1 Destabilizing Consequences: direct and indirect effects 31 4.2 Abuses and violations increase the distrust of PMSCs 33 4.3 Concerns for the lack of the governmental presence 37 5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 40 References ......................................................................................................... 43 i Summary The purpose of this thesis is to analyze whether the large presence of Private Military and Se- curity Companies (PMSCs) has affected the local populations and how it has impacted on Af- ghans. Becoming major players of the global security structure after the end of the Cold War, these companies have been massively involved in the intervention in Afghanistan for the pro- vision of military-related activities and security services. In this context, most of the PMSCs were hired in support of the coalition military forces that had entered the country in 2001, providing a myriad of different services. From logistical and base support activities to military and operational roles, including even demining and intelli- gence tasks, quickly private companies pervaded Afghanistan not without raising questions. The way in which PMSCs have emerged as crucial players of the security governance in Af- ghanistan show the existence of a hybrid structure where varied actors combine at multiple levels to supply security-related services. What emerges is not just how commercial military and security practices have been genera- ted, but the thesis deals with the consequences of the practices and the impact suffered by the civilian population. Illustrating the cases of incidents and violations involving the personnel of some PMSCs and Afghans, makes it possible to show the direct implications of contractors that have affected the lives of local people with a negative impact on their perception of security. In addition, a sense of destabilization was produced by the apparent impunity of PMSCs, that through a complex system of interlinkages with economic and political elites could challenge the go- vernment of Afghanistan creating a parallel structure of control. Distrust towards both the companies and the state was thus the most noteworthy result of the destabilizing effect of the vast use of PMSCs in Afghanistan. ii List of Abbreviations ANA Afghan National Army ANP Afghan National Police ANSF Afghan National security Forces APPF Afghan Public Protection Force APSC Armed Private Security Company ASG Armed Support Group CIA Central Intelligence Agency DOD Department of Defense GIRoA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan IR International Relations ISAF International Security Assistance Force MOI Ministry of Interior MPRI Military Professional Resources Inc. NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-governmental Organization OEF Operation Enduring Freedom PD62 Presidential Decree 62 PMC Private Military Company PMF Private Military Firm PMS Private Security Company PMSC Private Military and Security Company QRF Quick Reaction Force SIGAR Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction UNSC United Nations Security Council UNWG United Nations working Group USCENTCOM United States Central Command USPI United States Protection and Investigation iii 1. Introduction and Background 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Structure of the thesis 1.3 The Private Military and Security Industry 1.4 The Afghan case 1.1 Introduction “The end of the Cold War left a huge vacuum and I identified a niche in the market”.1 This quote of EO’s founder Eben Barlow well illustrates the phenomenon of the rise of priva- te military industry in the contemporary context, where private actors have found a great bu- siness as being crucial players in the security field. Private Military and Security Companies (henceforth PMSCs), as the South African Executive Outcomes founded in 1989 by Barlow and involved in the conflicts in Angola and Sierra Leo- ne, form a growing industry that since the end of the Cold War has influenced most of the re- cent international conflicts providing military and security commodities on all continents all over the world. The demand for PMSCs’ services has increased incredibly in the last thirty years, reaching the peak with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it is precisely the con- flict that took place in Afghanistan the case study for this dissertation, in which I sought to inquire into the impact of PMSCs on civil population. The process of globalization exploded in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, added to the growing influence of economic neoliberal models that inspired most of the governmen- ts, led to a new trend that broadened the classic concept of warfare. The privatization of the military and security profession, that for the last two centuries has been seen as a monopoly in the hands of national states, is now challenging many of the old rules of the warfare. Outsour- cing military and security programs became a priority in the strategies of most of the coun- tries involved in the post-9/11 intervention in Afghanistan, where even the president Hamid Karzai was protected by the personnel of the US private firm DynCorp. 1 Schreier, Fred and Marina Caparini, Privatising Security: Law, Practice and Governance of Private Military and Security Companies, DCAF Occasional Paper 6, 2005, p.19. 1 Previous studies on the emergence of the privatized military industry have focused on a multi- tude of different aspects, but my intention is to explore the consequences of the use of PMSCs on Afghanistan after 2001. The thesis aims to explore how the large use of PMSCs has affec- ted and influenced the life of Afghans, with a special consideration given to the importance of the legitimacy and sovereignty of the Afghan government which is in charge of the control over the territory. The impact of these private actors on the civilians is the main question due to the willingness to clarify their role and implication in the field of security provision in Af- ghanistan. Finding out whether the presence of PMSCs has affected Afghanistan is important in order to deal with the literature of the topic which predominantly focuses on the negative impact of private firms in weak states, eroding state power and diminishing the monopoly on the legitimate use of force. 1.2 Structure of the thesis This chapter offers an introduction and a brief outline of the thesis, with a first definition of PMSCs in a section explaining the phenomenon of the emergence of these actors after the end of the Cold War. Then a paragraph is dedicated to some background informations about Af- ghanistan and its recent history with the US-led intervention of 2001 as part of the new strate- gy of the global war on terror in response to the 9/11 attacks. The brief summary of the recent Afghan history is fundamental to get a better understanding of the current situation of the country, regarded as belonging to that group of fragile, weak or failed states in a process of post-conflict resolution. Chapter 2 explains the methodology applied and the theoretical framework chosen. In the first paragraph the focus is the explication of the case study approach, which has been privileged because the most valid to study a particular situation that needs to be treated following a com- prehensive perspective able to include also the global trend of security and military privatiza- tion. In the second one the theoretical framework is accounted for: a justification of the choice of the Global Security Assemblages is provided after a short overview of the main approaches