Privatizing Peace: From Conflict to Security

This is the first book to explore the possibilities of a such a fusion in depth. Drawing on first-hand experience of World Bank and UN initiatives, the authors pinpoint the weaknesses in the numerous peacekeeping missions of recent decades, as well as the blind spots in the thinking that guided them. Even more significantly, they clearly demonstrate the ways in which well-meaning stabilisation and reconstruction programs fail to accommodate the economic and social imperatives of war-torn societies. But this visionary work is not merely an indictment of First World myopia in the face of Third World devastation. The authors offer cogent, well-thought-out recommendations, firmly grounded in current reality, with a powerful determination to avoid the repetition of past mistakes. Among their arguments the reader will find: specific measures to quickly further the explicit ‘partnering’ arrangements between the UN and the World Bank; numerous ways in which the valuable work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can be integrated, avoiding the all-too-common social and market distortions caused by conspicuous humanitarian assistance; proposals for World Bank policies that will more realistically address poor governance and gross inequalities in economic distribution; procedures for private sector engagement that can quickly create a skilled workforce even in a disrupted society; the engagement of law firms to provide essential legal services in reestablishing the rule of law; and transparent regulation allowing private military organisations to temporarily assume defense and police roles when governments lose the power to protect civil society from external and internal predators.