Thesis (Master, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2007-10-25 13:31:32.904 / My thesis is an examination of militarized masculinity in Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces and the Private Security Firm Blackwater. I employ a gender analysis to highlight how militarized masculinity impedes women’s participation from Special Forces and private security firms. Feminist scholarship by Cynthia Enloe, Ann Tickner, Sandra Whitworth, and Charlotte Hooper has examined how militarized masculinity is associated within a particular political/situational context and therefore should be understood in its plural—as militarized masculinities. However, there is limited scholarship focusing on how masculinities vary in Special Forces and private security firms. This lack of scholarship results in limited knowledge of the implications militarized masculinity in these units has for women’s security and for women’s participation in these units. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the current literature by exploring, through militarized masculinities, the gender barriers to women’s participation and the consequences of the security produced when these units deploy. To analyze the impact of militarized masculinity in these units I conducted interviews with authorities on these units, applicants interested in participating in these units, and performed a content analysis of Blackwater’s website. I argue based on the information gathered that militarized masculinity, while varied in its application in special units and private security firms, continues to impede women’s participation and in some cases can cause greater insecurity for women where these units are deployed. / Master

Abstract The history of Private Security Industry in Taiwan has been twenty-five years till now. Private security guards are not only the major support to governmental police force but also the labor market in demand now in spite of the work force surplus in other industries caused by economic depression. The development of private security industry is still at developing stage so that some organizations¡¦ policies and systems are not complete and sound enough. In addition, the demographics of employees in this industry are different from those in others. Majority of them are low-level educational or unemployed older workers. They chose this low entry-barrier occupation in order to solve economic plight but find no aspiration for or don¡¦t adapt to this position after working for a while. The issues discussed above have been affected private security guards¡¦ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Few of the foreign and domestic studies on private security industry focused on behavioral issue and were conducted quantitatively. The purposes of this study were to measure work values, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of private security guards and to examine the effect of work values on those two work attitudes. Due to most of private security guards are older workers, in this study age has divided into four categories with the reference of the Bureau of Accounting & Statistics as following: young aged¡]below 25¡^, middle aged¡]26-45¡^, senior aged¡]46-65¡^, and old aged¡]above 66¡^. Data collected from a questionnaire survey of 967 private security guards in southern part of Taiwan was analyzed using the statistical techniques of crosstab, descriptive statistics analysis, T-test, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical regression. The results indicates: 1.Most of private security guards are reemployed; most of their previous positions are at non-managerial levels; previous tenure are mainly below 15 years; most of them engaged in service industry; the main reason of last separation for all of them was voluntary separation, but for the senior aged it was factory or business shut down; the first reason of present employment is basically to support family economy. 2.Private security guards emphasize most on the work value of ¡§the orientation of organizational security and economy¡¨ but least on ¡§the orientation of stability and free from anxiety ¡¨; they have greatest ¡§intrinsic job satisfaction¡¨ but least ¡§extrinsic job satisfaction¡¨; they have highest ¡§affective commitment¡¨ but lowest ¡§continuous commitment¡¨. 3.The occupation of a private security guard should possesses the work values of higher ¡§orientation of social interaction¡¨ and lower ¡§orientation of stability and free from anxiety¡¨. Employers might take the work values orientation into consideration in the process of recruiting and selecting. 4.Senior aged private security guards have higher affective commitment and normative commitment than the young and middle aged. 5.Among work values, ¡§the orientation of self-realization, the orientation of esteem, and the orientation of stability and free from anxiety¡¨ had significant positive effect on job satisfaction¡F ¡§the orientation of organizational security and economy¡¨ had significant negative effect on job satisfaction; ¡§the orientation of esteem¡¨ has significant positive effect on organizational commitment; ¡§the orientation of social interaction¡¨ had significant positive effect on affective commitment; ¡§the orientation of stability and free from anxiety¡¨ had significant negative effect on affective commitment, but significant positive effect on continuous commitment. Private security company employers might regard these findings as the direction of modifying organization policies to improve employee¡¦s work attitudes. Key words: Private Security guard, work values, job attitude, job satisfaction, organizational commitment

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2008].

The growth and prevalence of the private military industry has led many to conclude that the state has outsourced one of its core functions: public security. As a global non-state actor, PMSCs pose a risk to state sovereignty by undermining the democratic legitimacy of armed forces and challenging the states international monopoly over force. This study, using the tripartite model in English school theory, refutes this commonly held belief by examining the regulatory methods that have brought PMSCs squarely under state control. This study organizes regulatory efforts in a three level concept of national, international and self-regulatory methods, and based on the increased national regulatory methods, mixed with international norms and weak self-regulation, concludes that states maintain their primacy over violence in world politics.

My thesis is an examination militarized masculinity in Canada's JTF2 Special Forces and the Private Security Firm Blackwater. I employ a gender analysis to highlight how militarized masculinity impedes women's participation from Special Forces and private security firms. Feminist scholarship by Cynthia Enloe, Ann Tickner, Sandra Whitworth, and Charlotte Hooper has examined how militarized masculinity is associated within a particular political/situational context and therefore should be understood in its plural--as militarized masculinities. However, there is limited scholarship focusing on how masculinities vary in Special Forces and private security firms. This lack of scholarship results in limited knowledge of the implications militarized masculinity in these units has for women's security and for women's participation in these units. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the current literature by exploring, through militarized masculinities, the gender barriers to women's participation and the consequences of the security produced when these units deploy. To analyze the impact of militarized masculinity in these units I conducted interviews with authorities on these units, applicants interested in participating in these units, and performed a content analysis of Blackwater's website. I argue based on the information gathered that militarized masculinity, while varied in its application in special units and private security firms, continues to impede women's participation and in some cases can cause greater insecurity for women where these units are deployed.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

According to the United States Department of Defense (DOD), as of 2013 there were over 12,000 DOD contractors supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq (DASD, 2013). This thesis explores the laws and legal systems that operate to keep contractors, and the companies that employ them, resistant to legal oversight. I ground my analysis in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, exploring how every attempt to prosecute those responsible was doomed due to Blackwater’s legal position of being American-headquartered, hired by the State Department, privately owned, and operating in Iraq. I conclude that the legal indeterminacy of the US deployed security contractor normalizes violence towards Iraqi civilians while simultaneously downloading the risk and responsibility associated with the US war efforts onto the shoulders of individual contractors. Moreover, I suggest that this legal indeterminacy is of particular interest to geographers as it arises, in part, out of overlapping legal systems, jurisdictions, and authorities.

According to the United States Department of Defense (DOD), as of 2013 there were over 12,000 DOD contractors supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq (DASD, 2013). This thesis explores the laws and legal systems that operate to keep contractors, and the companies that employ them, resistant to legal oversight. I ground my analysis in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, exploring how every attempt to prosecute those responsible was doomed due to Blackwater’s legal position of being American-headquartered, hired by the State Department, privately owned, and operating in Iraq. I conclude that the legal indeterminacy of the US deployed security contractor normalizes violence towards Iraqi civilians while simultaneously downloading the risk and responsibility associated with the US war efforts onto the shoulders of individual contractors. Moreover, I suggest that this legal indeterminacy is of particular interest to geographers as it arises, in part, out of overlapping legal systems, jurisdictions, and authorities.

The post-Cold War era saw the extraordinary expansion of UN activity in the maintenance of global peace and security. Such a rapid expansion led to organizational over-stretch and failure and many in the international community began searching for ways to improve UN peacekeeping by reducing deployment time. In the mid-1990s, the Dutch, Canadian and Danish governments released proposals for a UN rapid reaction capability. Unfortunately, of the three proposals only the Danish proposed Stand-by High Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG) was implemented. The lack of movement toward UN rapid reaction is due to a number of factors, namely the loss of post-Cold War idealism, a disconnection with the political reality of the time and cost concerns. More fundamentally, rapid reaction posed a threat to state primacy.

The post-Cold War era saw the extraordinary expansion of UN activity in the maintenance of global peace and security. Such a rapid expansion led to organizational over-stretch and failure and many in the international community began searching for ways to improve UN peacekeeping by reducing deployment time. In the mid-1990s, the Dutch, Canadian and Danish governments released proposals for a UN rapid reaction capability. Unfortunately, of the three proposals only the Danish proposed Stand-by High Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG) was implemented. The lack of movement toward UN rapid reaction is due to a number of factors, namely the loss of post-Cold War idealism, a disconnection with the political reality of the time and cost concerns. More fundamentally, rapid reaction posed a threat to state primacy.