Bridging Which Gaps? The European Union’s Use of Private Military and Security Companies in Common Security and Defence Policy Missions

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F26482789%3A_____%2F25%3A10152813" target="_blank" >RIV/26482789:_____/25:10152813 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2025.2468530" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2025.2468530</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2025.2468530" target="_blank" >10.1080/14751798.2025.2468530</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Bridging Which Gaps? The European Union’s Use of Private Military and Security Companies in Common Security and Defence Policy Missions

Original language description

Scholarship and policy documents largely explain the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in European Union&apos;s (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions based on cost-savings and lack of in-house resources by member states (MSs). In this article, we develop a more comprehensive explanation of the EU&apos;s increasing use of PMSCs in CSDP missions as the outcome of three overlapping gaps: those between capabilities and expectations, consensus and expectations, as well as intentions and implementation. To probe our multiple gaps argument, we analyse security privatization during CSDP missions, focusing on operation EUBAM Libya. Our plausibility probe shows that PMSCs do not always provide capabilities that are in short supply within the EU, thereby magnifying the effectiveness of EU external action. In operations like EUBAM Libya, contractor support was hardly efficient or effective and covered capabilities that MSs&apos; security forces widely possess. However, the EU is often unable to activate and deploy national forces due to disagreements between MSs as well as bureaucratic constraints within MSs. Hence, a focus on political constraints and bureaucratic hurdles can effectively complement capabilities gaps in providing a thick, multicausal explanation of contractor support to EU crisis management.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA24-10160S" target="_blank" >GA24-10160S: Twenty-Five Years of EU Counterterrorism Policy: New Challenges, Old Problems?</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Defence and Security Analysis

ISSN

1475-1798

e-ISSN

1475-1801

Volume of the periodical

43

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

27

Pages from-to

464-489

UT code for WoS article

001433416200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105014361183