Abstract

In this episode, Mr Callum Watson discusses about glass ceiling and private security.

This podcast series is presented by Dr Alessandro Arduino, Principal Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.

Listen to the full podcast here:

Full Transcript:

[Alessandro Arduino]: Welcome to the 22nd episode of the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute podcast series Boots Off the Ground: Security and Transition from the Middle East and Beyond. In this series, we look at the future of warfare which will see uniformed soldiers — or boots on the ground — being replaced by private military companies, autonomous weapons systems and cyber weapons. My name is Alessandro Arduino and I am very glad to start the new year with Mr Callum Watson discussing the glass ceiling and private security. Welcome, Callum!

[Callum Watson]: Hi, Alessandro! It’s a pleasure to be here.

[Alessandro Arduino]: The pleasure really is ours. Mr Callum Watson is currently the gender co-ordinator at the Small Arms Survey, where he works on projects that explore linkages between arms control and the women, peace and security agenda, as well as supporting gender mainstreaming efforts. Previously, Mr Watson worked for the Gender and Security Division at DCAF—the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance where he was the project lead on DCAF’s work related to the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. His work also encompassed activities on teaching gender in the military, addressing gender bias in the justice sector and researching men and masculinities. Mr Watson studied International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and he holds a Masters in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva.

Let me start with our first question: I’ve been reading – several times, I could say – the DCAF report on gender and private security regulation. In that report, you underlined how gender perspective is essential to regulating private military and security companies. However, before getting into the details of gender perspective in the security arena, I am intrigued to know if this research is Western-centric or could it be applied to the rise of a new breed of private military and security companies (PMSCs)? I am mainly referring to Russia, Turkey and even the private security sector in China.

[Callum Watson]: Thank you, Alessandro. The authors of the report, Anna Marie Burdzy and Lorraine Serrano, work extensively with partners primarily outside the West – in particular, West and Central Africa, Latin America and Timor Leste. The research itself draws on studies from Kenya and South Africa as well as Western countries and was also co-published as part of the “Gender and Security Toolkit” by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights for which both Russia and Turkey are member states. We might think of Russia and Turkey as skeptical countries when it comes to thinking about gender perspective and gender equality but if we were having this conversation 100 years ago, we’d be speaking of Atatürk’s Turkey, home of the world’s first female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen and the Soviet Union where Social Welfare Minister Alexandra Kollontai was seen as a radical in the West for advocating paid childcare, parental leave and no-fault divorce. We might have the impression that much of the work on gender is Western – and it’s true that Western terminology does dominate international discourses – but each country has its own movement and Western countries aren’t always the most progressive. When we talk about gender and security at the international level, much of the policy and thinking has come about as a reaction to what happened to women in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, especially when it comes to sexual violence.

However, these same studies highlighted women as conflict actors and men as victims of sexual violence and sex-selective killing. That’s perhaps a long way of saying that every security situation does have a gender dimension. Of course, these gender dynamics vary a lot from one place to another, which is why the policy brief focuses on what questions to ask rather than providing universal solutions. So, I’d say it would also apply to some of these emerging new breeds of PMSCs in Russia and Turkey.

[Alessandro Arduino]: In our previous BOTG podcast, we discussed a lot about the various stakeholders – starting with the United Nations (UN) working group on mercenary activities, ICOCA, and ISOA – on the need for accountability and transparency to avoid negative spillovers into the local community. However, if you were to look at the need for more regulations and enforcing mechanisms, how can a gender perspective and an increased role for women in the private military and security sector benefit this trend towards positive spillovers?

[Callum Watson]: Let’s start by talking about gender perspective. Women, men, girls and boys and gender minorities all face different kinds of security threats. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, UN peacekeepers saw some successes in achieving their mandate to train law enforcement, reduce threats to public order and prevent a return to conflict. Some peacekeepers were employed through private contractors such as DynCorp but men and women do not face the same kind of threats. While many men felt safer, it was later uncovered that peacekeepers were involved in raping underaged girls and participating in sex trafficking. Clearly, this would have had a lasting negative impact on the community. Perpetrators of sexual exploitation and abuse tend to target those who lack the ability to report – either because there is no mechanism, they are stigmatised by society or they won’t be believed. This is why children are often targeted, for example. These abuses have had a lasting impact on the country but also caused considerable damage to DynCorp’s reputation, which may be one reason why the brand was retired after the company was bought by Amentum. The security analysis in Bosnia was gender-blind – it mainly considered public disturbances as threats. The public space is where men are most vulnerable. It didn’t consider crimes that could happen behind closed doors – which is where women are most vulnerable.

When it comes to positive spillovers, it helps to consider that PMSCs often offer the best employment opportunities in certain areas and to certain demographic groups – especially young people. Women and men, of course, have the right to equality in the workplace and PMSCs can play an important role when it comes to social mobility. Furthermore, women in security-related roles are well placed to challenge social perceptions of what women are capable of and can inspire future generations. We saw this, for example, in Liberia where female Indian police peacekeepers inspired Liberian women to join the police later on, after the conflict. In addition, private security providers often guard workplaces such as hospitals, financial institutions and IT companies. It is important that these security providers do not threaten female employees – and male employees – from groups that traditionally face discrimination or there is a risk that it contributes to furthering inequality in the society they are supposed to serve. Having both women and men serve is a necessity – when it comes to searching people, for instance – but also an indication that the private security company is professional and works with integrity.

There was one other element that emerged from the research led by Dr Sabrina Karim from Cornell University, who is collaborating with DCAF within the framework of the Canadian-led Elsie Initiative on women in peacekeeping. They found that male police and military personnel who held discriminatory or rigid views on gender were also those most likely to commit disciplinary offences. For example, they found that those who believe that a good wife should obey her husband or that women often lie about being raped or that men make better political leaders and changing diapers are a women’s responsibility were also those who were most likely to escalate security situations by excessive use of force and avoid reporting drunk driving or sexual exploitation and abuse by their colleagues. So, while we might think that sometimes it’s alright to overlook sexist views of PMSC personnel because they need to be able to use violence, we find that they are actually less likely to follow company regulations and more inclined to becoming a security threat themselves. Back to the point about positive and negative spillovers, the application of a gender perspective is key to ensuring that there is a positive spillover into the society in which the PMSC is operating.

[Alessandro Arduino]: What about from the client side – from a contracting point of view – will it become imperative to require more women in the field and not only as boots on the ground but also in managerial and CEO roles, even? Is it just wishful thinking or there is a real chance of accomplishing this result? Is the role of the state vital in enforcing this?

[Callum Watson]: I think there is growing evidence that shows that increasing the role that women play in any workplace is both the right thing to do, from a human rights perspective and a smart one as well – there are benefits to both the state and the PMSCs. States can play a role in two ways; firstly, through legislation and secondly, as clients of private security contractors. If they are using private companies to perform roles that were previously performed by the state and in which the private company is effectively representing the state (in airports as peacekeepers or by protecting government installations), it makes sense that they insist on the PMSC to apply the same rules and regulations as those in the public sector. This could include policies on reporting mechanisms related to gender equality, inclusive recruitment polices and specific training on how to respond to the security needs of women, men, girls, boys and gender minorities.

In terms of managerial and CEO roles, however, there is also a financial reason to promote gender equality. The job market is competitive – if you don’t have a diverse recruitment pool because of discriminatory recruitment practices or the company has a reputation for having a toxic work environment, the best women and men will simply work elsewhere. The military and police have already learnt this – they need people with diverse skill sets and they often struggle to recruit staff in areas such as interpretation and translation, IT services and cyber security because women – and men who do not conform to stereotypical masculine norms – often don’t want to work there. In addition, it is often minority groups that are employed in private security because they don’t get sufficient protection from public security. We can think about LGBTI groups around the world – from gay bars in Lebanon and Bosnia to Geneva Pride to the abortion clinics in the US. If they have an option of working with a private security company that employs people like them at all levels, they will.

[Alessandro Arduino]: Since the Blackwater Bloody Sunday put a spotlight on the abuse of human rights and the lack of accountability against the actions carried out by PMSCs in highly complex environments, there is an increasing perception from the public about PMSCs’ impunity. A recent call for justice in relation to the Russian Wagner Group’s beheading of a Syrian prisoner is a case in point. How could focusing on a gender perspective mitigate these problems and how is it imperative to research the impact that non-state actors operating in the security arena have on women and girls?

[Callum Watson]: I’m not well-placed to say whether there have been any changes in whether the public sees PMSCs as having impunity. Obviously, they tend to operate in areas where the rule of law is relatively weak and hence, we have seen responses through the Montreux Document and International Code of Conduct that have subsequently tried to reduce levels of impunity. How a gender perspective can help is that it challenges biases we have about who is vulnerable and who is not and subsequently, who should be protected. The case that you mentioned, the murder of Mohammed Taha al Ismail Abdallah by the Wagner Group, is good case study for this. Although the footage is shocking, it may have perhaps been more shocking had it been a woman because we might assume that women are innocent civilians while at the same time, we might assume that the victim in this case must have done something wrong even if he didn’t deserve to be killed. Mohammed was reportedly a deserter from the Syrian Army. The forced conscription of men in Syria into a conflict situation where there is a high likelihood of death or serious injury is a gender-specific threat that men face and indeed one of the reasons why many more men than women have fled the country.

Women are more likely to be internally displaced or flee to neighbouring countries like Jordan. Despite being the most likely targets for forced recruitment, young, single men have certain difficulties in claiming asylum because we don’t view them as vulnerable. It is only when we begin to question why we are more willing to accept certain kinds of violence against people of one gender versus another, can we begin to be objective about human rights abuses, accountability and ending impunity. The criminals in this case were reportedly drunk men. Again, we might be tempted to see this as a “boys will be boys” situation rather than a total failure of their immediate commander and employer to assert any kind of effective leadership.

When it comes to women, research tells us that when we focus on human rights abuses that take place in the line of duty, we tend to overlook how women are affected. Women are more at risk from PMSC officers when they are offduty. As we discussed before, women are often trafficked into conflict areas and forced into sex work for the benefit of both the military and the PMSCs. In addition, studies have demonstrated – which I’ve noticed through my work here at the Small Arms Survey – that while PMSCs usually regulate how their personnel use firearms at work to some degree, there have been cases where personnel take their weapon home. The personnel may claim that they do this to protect their families but studies have shown that they are far more likely to use their weapon – or threaten to use it – against their own families. Arming PMSC personnel and tolerating abuses and the excessive use of force therefore increases the likelihood that these personnel commit domestic violence against their own families. So, to really understand the full scope of impunity, it is important we apply a gender perspective to understand the different threats faced by women and men.

[Alessandro Arduino]: During the last decade, I had the chance to interview several PMSC owners, managers and contractors from China, Russia and the West. I can say that a common trait superseded local cultural biases and stereotypes: machismo. Machismo is deeply rooted in most of the companies I interviewed and very few women working at the managerial level had any intelligence background. Most of the jobs involving women, during my interviews, were related to clerical positions. One exception was a trend that I spotted in China in 2018 relating to women working in close protection details. At that time, there was an excellent demand for combat-trained women who could blend in while escorting VIP wives and children to school. At that time, the trend appeared more like a fashion statement among the rich Chinese elite than an absolute necessity, especially when some prospective clients required model-looking bodyguards. Do you witness this kind of trend growing in other parts of the world? Are we finally going to see more women in positions requiring important decisions to be made and are not just regarded as fashion statements?

[Callum Watson]: I think we are beginning to see changes, specifically when looking at peacekeepers and also in different police and military forces around the world. It is important to say that there is nothing wrong with having talented men who are proud of being competent in skills that are considered masculine. The problem is when these men have discriminatory attitudes towards women – and other men. We’ve already spoken about the fact that men who promote rigid gender norms and have outdated ideas about the role of women and men also tend to downplay the seriousness of disciplinary offences and risk escalating violent confrontations. The studies that we have seen in places like the US have shown that where there are high levels of sexual harassment against women, there also tends to be a toxic work environment where men who are considered less masculine are bullied – and sexually harassed. Poor work environments, counterproductive behaviours, breakdowns in discipline and bleeding talent are all bad news for PMSCs. If the most qualified person for a job is a woman but she turns down your company because it has a toxic work culture, not only will you lose her to your competitor, you’ll have to employ someone less qualified, instead.

Also, it is rare that women within the military or the police first enter their roles because of a desire to promote gender equality. Most militaries and police first began recruiting women to recruit sufficient numbers of skilled staff. Still, this can give women an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities and normalise their presence so things begin to change overtime, as we have seen elsewhere. Of course, it’s not fair to burden women with this – companies and governments should ensure they have equal opportunities to begin with. I think one other element that we’ve seen, that’s been quite interesting in the area of peacekeeping is, we’ve asked different peacekeepers what they see as the most important skills that peacekeepers need to have and we might consider that because peacekeeping happens in dangerous situations so having conflict abilities, using aggression and having the capability to kill if needed, might rank at the top.  However, both male and female peacekeepers said that communication skills with people in the host population was the most important skill that you needed to have and secondarily, the ability to work with people from other countries was the most important skill that they saw. So, often peacekeeping units are mixed. Similarly, private military and security companies have to work with people from different backgrounds.  We can also begin to ask ourselves whether the criteria upon which we’re selecting personnel to work in PMSCs really responds to an accurate security needs analysis. Have we really looked at what the security needs of the population or the client are?  Are we really selecting people objectively or are we falling into stereotypical images of what we see as the most talented and competent private military security officer that might be based on a certain idea of machismo? Actually, sometimes, when we promote people who’ve got macho attitudes, in fact, we’re not recruiting or deploying people who’ve got the skill sets that best meet the client’s needs.

[Alessandro Arduino]: In your report, you underline a very compelling case: gender-based violence. Can you discuss in more detail the economic impact of gender-based violence on local communities and the role of grievance mechanisms?

[Callum Watson]: Gender-based violence – which includes both physical violence and psychological threats – can have a serious effect on the health of individual survivors. This leads to higher rates of workplace absenteeism – noting that the unpaid labour of women especially, when it comes to household tasks, is what allows other members of the family to work full-time. The financial losses are huge – in Peru, for example, it is estimated that as much as 3.7% of GDP is lost because of gender-based violence. A World Bank report estimated losses in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Uganda as being equivalent to a quarter to a half of the national education budget. Another aspect is that gender-based violence is often intergenerational – those who commit or suffer from domestic violence often witnessed it as children and so, they would later replicate their parent’s behaviour of committing or tolerating abuse. PMSCs can also become entangled in expensive legal cases, lose valuable clients and their own staff can face reprisal attacks which all affect the company if they don’t treat gender-based violence seriously and try to prevent it wherever possible.

That is why we have grievance processes. Ideally, anyone who is a victim of gender-based violence – whether they contact the police, a hospital, a religious institution or a civil society organisation – needs to receive information on how to make a complaint that could be through the police or a channel that goes directly to a PMSC. In addition, robust internal mechanisms will allow staff to report sexist behaviour or gender-based violence when the issue is small before it escalates. It’s much better for a company to receive information and resolve the problem immediately than to  discover the abuses once they face a – lawsuit or a reprisal attack. One final point I will make is that if you receive no complaints as a PMSC, it usually means the grievance system doesn’t work; it’s not because there are no issues.

[Alessandro Arduino]: In the Middle East, the region that we focus on here at MEI (NUS), the role of girls and women is evolving fast – I am not only referring to   Saudi Arabia permitting women to drive. In Africa, I notice an important role of women in Kenya in the security sector is reaching the position of a CEO and being an important part in driving the sector’s reform. What is your experience, looking at the Middle East, regarding trends and expectations?

[Callum Watson]: We might have an impression that Western countries are the most advanced on gender equality but Africa is home to South Africa – which is a country that has one of the highest female participation in the military in the world – as well as Rwanda, which has the most women in parliament. Things have been slower in the Middle East, overall, although there are examples such as Major Mariam al Mansouri being the UAE’s first female fighter jet pilot and she headed an operation in Syria in 2014. Kurdish and Israeli women, of course, have a long history of engaging in frontline conflict which goes back to the previous century. One country to highlight is Jordan, where they have been undertaking concerted efforts to recruit more women and ensuring that they get to high-ranking levels within the military, in recognition of the diverse skill sets required to respond to the needs of the many Syrian refugees living there now. They also have ambitions to train female peacekeepers from the region given the increased demand for more Arabic-speaking and Muslim female peacekeepers.

So, there is a trend where there is an increasing number of women becoming involved in the security sector in the Middle East. In fact, I was at a very interesting conference at the Kreisky Forum in Vienna where we did have women representatives from all over the MENA region – places like Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq. We do increasingly see women in these places becoming involved in the country’s military and I think there was a real recognition that you cannot respond to the full gamut of security risks that are being faced in this region without having a diverse workforce comprising of men and women.

[Alessandro Arduino]: Moving from the Middle East to Singapore, what kind of role can Singapore play in being a beacon for PMSCs regulation, especially in integrating gender perspective in procurement and contracting not only in ASEAN but in the entire Southeast Asian region?

[Callum Watson]: Yes, I agree that Singapore is well-placed to become a beacon for well-regulated PMSCs. First of all, if you’re going to be part of the international conversation, it would be important that Singapore and ASEAN both sign up to the Montreux Document and encourage PMSCs based in their countries to join the International Code of Conduct for private security providers. When it comes to gender, I think the best bet would be to invite some Singaporean gender experts to speak on your podcast. However, as a start, the three broad areas that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s White Paper on Women and Equality has would apply to PMSC procurement and contracting.

Whenever I try and understand the potential to integrate gender into this area, it’s quite late to use the DCAF “NAPRI” tool which you can find in Tool 15 of the Gender and Security Toolkit written by Lorraine Serrano. “NAPRI” is simply an acronym where we look at the Needs, Access, Participation, Resources and Impact of any given action.

So, when Singapore is contracting private security providers, the government should consult with diverse civil society actors including women from different backgrounds to define the security needs that the private security company is going to be asked to address. The white paper talks of the need to strengthen women’s physical and online security.

When it comes to access to the rights and benefits of private security contracts, the government should evaluate bids on whether the company has policies on gender equality – such as efforts to train and recruit more women and also to provide a family-friendly work environment for all staff – flexible working hours, paid parental leave and subsidised childcare, in line with the white paper.

When it comes to participation, the government should ensure that women are involved in decision-making when it comes to granting security officer licences and also in the evaluation, monitoring and oversight of services provided by PMSCs. For example, are we involving different parts of the population in assessing whether the private security company is working fully within the law? Is it actually meeting all of the gendered elements of the brief it was given by the governments? Are we also looking at, for example, whether private security officers have   a history of committing acts of gender-based violence when we’re granting them licenses?

When it comes to resources, the government should ensure that any contract – and the winning bid – allocates human and financial resources on the basis of a gendered security needs assessment. So, it’s not enough to say that we recognise that women and men have different needs. It’s also important that the resources allocated for everybody has an equal level of security as a result of the intervention by the private security company.

With regard to impact, all PMSCs that receive government contracts should have internal and/or external complaints procedures that are accessible to women and men. The initial needs assessment should identify any potential negative impacts – such as the risk of gender-based violence – and ensure that procurement processes contain aspects to mitigate against these risks.

Finally, it would be important to regularly consult diverse groups in the society to ensure that they feel safer through the provision of private security. I think this is particularly interesting in Singapore, a multi-ethnic state where different parts of the population have different kinds of security needs so I think it does serve to be an excellent role model, both for the region and the rest of the world.

[Alessandro Arduino]: I’m going to ask you what I usually ask all our guests towards the end of our podcast – we call it the billion-dollar question and it’s basically this: if we were to look at the future of gender integration in the coming 30 years, how do you think the private security sector will evolve in that direction?

[Callum Watson]: I think it will become increasingly evident that you do need to have diverse staff and skill sets within the private security sector.  I think we will begin to see changes and within the military, they have already recognised that. Warfare now is much less physical; we’ve already seen cyberattacks against nation states around the world. We’ve seen nation states recruiting private security companies in the cyber domain and we’ve seen that the kind of people who work in cyber security are not those who necessarily adhere to the stereotypical macho image. I also think we should not play down the fact that elements of ideological warfare also contain certain gendered aspects so, it might well be that we need to work on protecting the ability of women and men from different groups to express themselves online and private military and security companies might become involved in these things.

I think we’re going to see increasingly complex and hybrid forms of insecurity and these are exactly the kinds of insecurity that require diverse skill sets to deal with, where you have all different groups of women, men and gender minorities serving in the organisation. If you don’t take the needs of these different groups seriously, then you’re going to have gaps in your security policy.

[Alessandro Arduino]: Callum, I have to thank you very much for being with us today.  Thank you also to our audience for following MEI’s Boots Off the Ground podcast series. Do join us in the next episode. Thank you again and have a great day!