The False Promise of Multi-stakeholder Governance: Depoliticising Private Military and Security Companies

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have become a vital part of the global regulatory agenda. For some, MSIs are a way to reassert democratic control and accountability over corporations. For others, they merely represent the private capture of regulatory power. Based on an analysis of three MSIs in an issue area where the prospects for politicisation seem particularly promising, the regulation of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs), this article engages the debate about the political dynamics of MSIs. Using a three-face approach to depoliticisation that embraces its governmental, societal and discursive dimensions, the article shows that these governance arrangements have fostered depoliticisation along all three dimensions: The launch of MSIs has not only enabled states to evade a binding licencing regime; they have also diverted NGO attention into more amicable venues and turned the privatisation of security from a normative into a narrow, technical issue.