Commercial Anti- piracy Escorts In The Malacca Strait

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have emerged in the past 20 years, offering a vast menu of military and security services that earlier were largely the responsibility of government agencies. The demand for private military and security services comes in part from the maritime sector, where PMSCs are today employed to secure ports, vessels and offshore energy installations. This chapter focuses on anti-piracy services provided by internationally operating PMSCs in Malaysian and Indonesian waters of the Malacca Strait.1 It first provides an overview of piracy and the services PMSCs provide in this strategic waterway. Considering the general legal challenges and dilemmas that employment of these PMSCs causes, the paper then examines the relationship between governments and PMSCs in this geostrategic area, or more broadly between the state and such private security providers. It will be argued that the relationship is a problematic one, with both, the PMSCs and the Malaysian and Indonesian governments, adapting and reacting to each other. It will be suggested that the controversy surrounding the work of anti-piracy PMSCs in the Malacca Strait led to different working practices of these PMSCs and contributed to efforts by the two governments to control private security providers