CPSA/ISA-Canada section on International Relations

C15(b) - Business and International Governance

Date: Jun 1 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: Classroom - CL 435 Room ID:15771

Chair/Président/Présidente : Saira Baino (University of Calgary)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Stéfanie von Hlatky (Queen's University)

Cowboys or Professionals?: The Effects of Insurgent Attacks on Private Security Companies’ Tactical Behaviour: Scott Fitzsimmons (University of Limerick)
Abstract: Cowboys or Professionals?: The Effects of Insurgent Attacks on Private Security Companies’ Tactical Behaviour As with state-based armed forces and insurgent groups, private security companies exhibit considerable variation in their tactical choices. Although multiple studies have examined the overall level of violence used by private armed forces and proposed explanations for why certain firms are more violent than others, none have examined the connection between the violence experienced by these firms and their tactical behaviour. This study examines how violent attacks conducted by insurgents against private security companies influenced the tactical behaviour exhibited by their employees. By undertaking a quantitative analysis of several hundred violent incidents involving private security companies in Iraq and Afghanistan, it assesses the influence of attacks in general and in a more nuanced way, by distinguishing between attacks that inflicted no damage, just property damage, injuries, and deaths, on multiple aspects of the firms’ tactical behaviour. These include the frequency with which firms used violence against insurgents and civilians following an attack, the degree of discrimination exhibited by the firms in their use of violence, and the amount of property damage, injuries, and deaths inflicted by the firms among insurgents and civilians. Through this, this study provides an empirical test of conflicting views of private security personnel as either out-of-control cowboys or cool professionals.

Governing Private Security: How Beijing Controls Private Security Practices Abroad: David Walsh-Pickering (Queens University)
Abstract: On 25th, 2015 Peruvian police fired on protesters outside Shougang Hierro, a privately owned Chinese mining company, leaving one dead and at least ten injured. Other Chinese companies, such as Zijin and Jiangxi Cooper, make considerable investments into community engagement and infrastructure development to limit the chances of these types of conflict. While there is considerable literature on Corporate Social Responsibility practices of Chinese mining companies operating abroad, there is a gap in knowledge concerning the security operating practices of these companies. This article will ask how Chinese state owned extractive companies provide security on their operations overseas, as well as how Beijing influences these policies? This paper will highlight the difficulties Beijing has on regulating security overseas due to domestic constraints, as well as the unique ways Chinese companies have adapted to evolving security dynamics in areas they operate.

Corporate Social Responsibility in North America: The Politics of Business Power in Canada vs the United States: Michael MacLeod (St. Mary's University)
Abstract: Since the rise of the modern corporate social responsibility movement in the 1970s, and with its ubiquitous spread in the business world by the late 1990s, CSR has been referred by some scholars as “one of the most striking developments of the past several decades in the global political economy.” In advanced industrialized countries, the idea that firms have wider, extra-legal (voluntary) obligations to the societies in which they operate has become generally accepted even as corporate power itself increased as a result of the dominant neo-liberal influenced policy environment since the 1980s. While corporate social responsibility is a global trend that manifests itself in similar ways within most multinational corporations, there are also significant differences in how CSR has evolved according to the specific cultural and institutional opportunities and constraints within each country. While Canada and the United States share an increasingly linked business environment, the two countries have experienced different histories when it comes to the evolution of corporate accountability and responsibility. In this paper, I attempt to explain how CSR has developed in these two countries in similar yet different ways; in particular, I focus on one of the key drivers of corporate responsibility, shareholder activism, and how its relative strength in the US has overshadowed attempts in Canada to push forward the CSR agenda in the latter country.