Full Description
The first book dedicated to the sociology of privatized security, this collection studies the important global trend of shifting security from public to private hands and the associated rise of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and their contractors. The volume first explores the trend itself, making important historical and theoretical revisions to the existing social science of private security. These chapters discuss why rulers buy, rent and create private militaries, why mercenaries have become private patriots, and why the legitimacy of military missions is undermined by the use of contractors. The next section challenges the idea that states have a monopoly on legitimate violence and questions our legal and economic assumptions about private security. The collection concludes with a discussion of the contractors themselves, focusing on gender, race, ethnicity, and other demographic factors. Featuring a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods and arange of theoretical and methodological innovations, this book will inspire sociologists to examine, with fresh eyes, the behind-the-scenes tension between the high drama of war and conflict and the mundane realities of privatized security contractors and their everyday lives.
Contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Why Privatize: The Reasons Rulers Today Buy, Rent, or Create Private Militaries.- 3. From Mercenaries to Private Patriots: Nationalism and the Private Military Contractors.- 4. Legitimacy Building in Policy and Practice: The Case of US Private Military and Security Contractors (PMSC) in Afghanistan.- 5. The Expansion of the U.S. Military's Civilian Periphery and Corollary Progressive Changes in U.S. Military Law.- 6. Reserves Forces and the Privatization of the Military by the Nation State.- 7. Making Markets Responsible: Revisiting the State's Monopoly on the Legitimate Use of Force.- 8. Gendered Companies, Gendered Security.- 9. The Specter and Labor of the Black Poor in South Africa's Private Security Industry.- 10. Who are the Private Military and Security Contractors? A window to a new profession.- 11. Trendlines: Privatization and the Future of War and Security.
