Guest Chair: Dr. Glen Kitteringham – Security Consultant, Educator and Research Criminologist (Canada)

To some, using the term private military company is simply a new term for an old occupation: mercenary. However, some believe they are part of the private security industry? Part of the issue is that there is no agreed upon terminology and many conflate the two. What is the difference between them? Are similar services offered by both? Should there be a difference? What we do know is that in both cases we can find highly trained and expert personnel, and also largely untrained, underpaid poorly deployed people. This webinar will discuss:

- What are the differences between private military companies and companies in the private security industry?
- Is there adequate control of private military companies? If not what should be done?
- Do we need to more clearly distinguish between the two groups? If so how?

Panellists:
Dr. Declan Garrett – Director of Security Institute of Ireland (Ireland)
Oana-Mihaela Mihalache – Defence and Security Consultant at Sopra Steria Next (France)
Maria Nebolsina – Research Fellow at Center for Euro-Atlantic Security of International Studies Institute (Russia)
Adam White – Senior Lecturer in Criminology at University of Sheffield (UK)

A video and summary of this session is available here: https://www.theospas.com/2020/09/09/are-private-military-companies-part-of-the-private-security-sector-why-are-they-different-or-are-they/

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