Ends and Means: Assessing the Humanitarian Impact of Commercialised Security on the Ottawa Convention Banning Anti-Personnel Mines

The paper is divided into two parts; the first part provides an explanation and the second adds to policy-making. The first part describes the benefits arising from humanitarian demining and then identifies reasons why outside, non-state assistance is needed for this undertaking. Essential here is an understanding of the PSC, a new post-Cold War nonstate security actor. While turning to the private sector may be a necessity, the PSC industry as currently managed and regulated poses unique problems for states and NGOs in their humanitarian demining operations. In this regard, the paper explores why these problems may have been overlooked despite the negative impact of some PSC activities. Finally, the second part addresses ways to help overcome both the problems inherent in PSC activity and the reasons why solutions to them have not yet been found. It offers a sketch of an effective regulatory framework of the larger PSC industry which would have direct beneficial effects for the specific issue of humanitarian demining. Without regulation of this kind, the more problematic aspects of this new industry may gain legitimacy “through the back door” due to the current salience and popularity of humanitarian demining thanks largely due to the Ottawa Convention.