The increasing privatisation of military and stability operations has received considerable scholarly attention. Existing scholarship, however, has largely focused on the privatisation of state foreign policy, overlooking the empirical analysis of international organisations’ use of commercial actors in the conduct of crisis management operations. The present study fills this gap by investigating the role of commercial contractors in supporting European Common Security and Defence civilian and military missions. By doing so, the article intends to advance the empirical knowledge of the privatisation of foreign policy activities and the scope, determinants and future prospects of EU reliance on commercial actors for CSDP crisis management operations
