In the news: remembering Hurricane Katrina

On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina (a category 4 tropical storm) ravaged the coastal states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The immediate public response to the unfolding human disaster left behind by the storm did not match its scale, geometry, and deadly pace. Leaving the controversial involvement of some firms aside, however, private sector response alleviated some of the early shortcomings.

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Climate change and terrorism

In a recent report by the Center for Naval Analyses the argument was raised for linking climate change to terrorism. Admiral T. Joseph Lopez, former commander-in-chief US Naval Forces Europe and of Allied Forces Southern Europe, was quoted stating

"Climate change can provide the conditions that will extend the war on terror"

"Rising ocean water levels, droughts, violent weather, ruined national economies-those are the kinds of stresses we'll see more of under climate change"

"In the long term, we want to address the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit," Admiral Lopez said. "But climate change will prolong those conditions. It makes them worse"

While these points outline an interesting research position, serious and undesirable implications would arise if the argument gradually becomes policy. At the outset, such action would over-politicize and polarize global opinion for an area in which international cooperation is mandatory. We have already witnessed the adverse outcome the blind adoption of the strategy engenders. The basic premise that adverse conditions, be them caused by any factor, in this case climate change, contributes to terrorism is both overarching and too basic to lead to productive strategies. In this light, it is no surprise that China and an alliance of developing countries attacked the right of the UN Security Council to debate climate change. China left aside, take a closer look at the countries leading the uproar and expect little or no cooperation at all if the problem is formally linked to terrorism – or articulated as a universal threat to peace, as proposed by the UK government. Global public opinion has finally galvanized in recognizing climate change as a problem that needs to be addressed. Why not take advantage of this rare opportunity and forget about the unnecessary link to the war on terror at this stage?

Are the World's Most-Secure Locations Safe?

Or maybe not. In the Post-9/11 World, Virtually Any Security System Can Be Breached. The bomb that rocked Iraq's parliament building Thursday and killed at least eight people was a reminder that even the most-guarded places on earth can be penetrated by deadly forces. James Schmitt, senior vice president of ArmorGroup, comments on the Iraq parliament bombing.

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In the news: ArmorGroup

Headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange, ArmorGroup has long term operations in 38 countries and has supported its clients in over 160 countries. ArmorGroup complies with the US Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, 1997 and the UK Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, and has also been certified to ISO 9001:2000 and to ISO/IEC 27001:2005.

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The Greening of the Arms Industry?

It is interesting to see that the ‘green’ trend/agenda appears to be reaching the arms industry. This opening sentence might move the reader to think that I am about to discuss the development of biodegradable bullets, flora-friendly mines, or AK-47 recycle centers. However futuristic this might sound, I am sure there is someone out there seriously researching such possibilities. Far from that, I just wanted to draw attention to the brief article below. The article addresses a substantive attempt at the greening of arms and aerospace companies. Do not get over-optimistic, by greening I mean the business of establishing and selling the green credential of a particular company. With the politics agenda, spin and actual policy, and public concerns merging into a powerful trend for the greening of the environment, this business promises to be a profitable one. Evidently, how greenable (sic) arms firms are is altogether a different matter. Yet what really interests me is, when and in which form, the green agenda will intersect the private military company / private security company (PMC/PSC) debate. If there is a proposal in the air about defense companies being "compelled to invest back in the country they have sold arms", how long will it take for someone to propose the same for fully-fledged PSCs/PMCs such as Blackwater and Aegis. Indeed, this is the realm of speculations about alternative and surreal futures. However, are not we converging into that realm rapidly?

Helping arms and aerospace companies go green

Tchenguiz banks on green offset deals
The Sunday Times
1 April 2007
By Jenny Davey

THE wealthy entrepreneur Vincent Tchenguiz is planning to build a £5 billion business by helping arms and aerospace companies go green.
Tchenguiz has set up a new company called Co2 — Offset to Ozone, which aims to help defence manufacturers find investment opportunities in environmental, technology and healthcare companies under so-called "offset" arrangements.
Tchenguiz told The Sunday Times: "I can see the money. I will make a fortune."
Foreign defence and aerospace companies are compelled to invest back in the country they have sold arms or planes to. The investments in effect offset the trade imbalance caused by the funding of the arms deals.
Offset agreements vary from country to country, but many developing nations prefer defence companies to facilitate investment in companies or projects that create jobs and help tackle environmental problems, rather than ploughing money back into the arms industry. Offset requirements typically range from 10% of the purchase price to more than 100%.
Existing defence-related offset liabilities from defence companies are estimated to be worth $177 billion (£90.7 billion).
About $16 billion of new, defence-related offset liabilities will be created each year, as more countries introduce official offset policies.
Defence companies do not have to invest all the cash themselves in offset deals — they just have to prove they have caused the investment to happen.
Tchenguiz aims to cash in by co-investing alongside defence companies in offset projects. He also hopes to get fees from defence companies for helping them to find suitable offset investments.
The Iranian-born entrepreneur has already invested $500m for stakes in up to 1,000 companies working on technology and climate-change solutions. He has also taken a 6% stake in Imperial Innovations, the research and development arm of London’s Imperial College, and is talking to other universities, including Oxford, Reading and Columbia in New York. Universities are happy to work with him because he could help them sell their ideas about technology and climate change to as many as 30 different countries. Tchenguiz hopes the defence firms will invest in these businesses as part of their offset agreements, helping them to soar in value.
"This has been a very fragmented market and defence companies have been struggling to find investment projects," he said.
"By bringing scale and a balance sheet to it, and having a large portfolio of companies with projects, we can take some of the friction out of the process."
He has already struck his first deal with South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki — a 1 billion rand (£76.8m) environmental fund that will provide contractors with offset credits.
The fund will invest in a range of environmental companies and technologies in South Africa and other countries in the region.

Security Contractors 101 has moved

If you came here looking for Security Contractors 101, it has been moved to Live Journal: click here. Security Contractors 101 was an interactive feature introducing Private Military.org’s resources to a young audience. It was put together in order to show young men and women the vast amount of scholarship and resources that have been produced about the Private Military Company (PMC) and Private Security Company (PSC) over the last decade. Adopting a very colloquial tone, the aim was simply to expose them to the dedicated research published so far and encourage them to read more before jumping to fantastic conclusions at blog speed. In particular, due to the unfair manipulation they have been subject to recently in the blogsphere. The PMC and the PSC are critical to raising and maintaining levels of security in our unstable post-9/11 reality. Therefore, a little sobriety and pro-active understanding of the subject needs to be fostered in tomorrow’s active electorate, who inevitably will live in a world were public and private partnerships will be increasingly the norm in warfare, reconstruction, and peace-keeping endeavors. In its new home, Security Contractors 101 has been stripped off its interactive features due to persistent attacks. The live-quiz and multiple-choice applets might be reintroduced in the future, but not the ‘follow the rabbit’ game. To compensate, a few Gizmo clips were incorporated. As you might infer from this post, the tone and focus of the blog has changed. To facilitate the transition, previous posts were permanently deleted. If you like the new focus, stay with us!