The Sié Center at the University of Denver and Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces Release the Private Security Monitor web portal, PSM.du.edu
August 13, 2012—TheSié Chéou-Kang Chenter for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denver’s Korbel School in partnership with the Geneva based Center for Democrtic Control of Armed Forces, DCAF, has created an online web portal containing all publicly available information on global private military and security services. The web portal, called the Private Security Monitor, provides an annotated guide to publicly-available regulation, data, reports, and analysis of private military and security services. It will be a tool for researchers, regulators, consumers, watchdogs and journalists. Already, the Private Security Monitor is being used by leaders in the Business and Human Rights field.
The idea for the Private Security Monitor arose at a meeting of experts held by Dr. Deborah Avant, a leading expert on private military and security services, and now the Director of the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Specialists expressed frustration with finding and accessing information on the wide variety of regulatory efforts and their interaction with developments in the field. Assuming that good governance of these services requires good information about them, participants called for a one-stop source of information as critical to the success of ongoing regulatory efforts by government, industry and civil society.
The Private Security Monitor was the first major research project undertaken by the newly-formed Sié Center with the involvement of faculty, staff and Sié fellows. Released on August 13 and located at psm.du.edu, the Private Security Monitor’s coverage of global, multilateral, and US-based regulation is comprehensive. Over the next few months, in cooperation with DCAF and the UN Working Group on the use of Mercenaries, the Private Security Monitor will survey UN member states on their related laws and regulations. This information will be posted on the site as it is received. The Sié Center has plans to add more data and analysis to the Private Security Monitor in the coming months and years.
About the Sié Center and DCAF
The Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy is a unique teaching
and research center at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University
of Denver. The Sié Center advances scholarship on emerging issues in international
affairs, with programs focused on Security Governance, Terrorism and Insurgency, and
Fragile States. Through its research and activities, the Center aims to promote understanding
of the world’s most serious challenges and support efforts to manage them.
Sié Center Director, Dr. Deborah Avant, focuses her research on the privatization of security, civil-military relations, military change, and the politics of controlling violence. She is the author of numerous books, journal articles and book chapters, including one of the first in-depth studies on private military and security firms, The Market for Force: the Consequences of Privatizing Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). More about the Sié Center and Dr. Avant can be found at http://www.du.edu/korbel/sie/.
DCAF is an international foundation established in 2000 on the initiative of the Swiss Confederation as the 'Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces'. DCAF contributes to enhancing security sector governance through security sector reform. DCAF has a dedicated program on Private Security Governance that has been instrumental in the development of global governance of private military and security services, including the Montreux Document on Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies during Armed Conflict (2008) and the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (2010).
DCAF is currently involved in establishing independent mechanisms for effective implementation, governance and oversight of the ICoC. More information about the ICoC can be found at http://www.icoc-psp.org/, and DCAF at http://www.dcaf.ch/.
