Buy the article on CAIRN websiteAbstract

The balance of control over security processes is shifting from the state to the private sector –partly because 'security' has become defined more widely. Companies have a major potential for good or ill in conflict situations. They are targets of terrorism, may become its accomplices through trafficking and financing, but are also useful partners against it. The commercial provision of defense and security services is growing and raises practical and ethical issues which may require regulation. New ways are needed for private and public actors to communicate on this agenda.Alyson J.K. Bailes has been in the British Diplomatic Service for 32 years. She became Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in July 2002.

Caroline Holmqvist is Research Associate at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in the Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Programme. Graduate in International Relations, (London School of Economics and Political Science), she worked on armed conflicts.