Routledge Handbook of Private Security

This new Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of current research on private security and military companies, comprising essays by a mixture of established scholars and upcoming researchers who have all made significant contributions to the field.

Since the end of the cold war international security has undergone a rapid commercialization. Reorganized according to new public management principles encouraging outsourcing and privatization the result has been a rapid expansion and growth of "so called" private military and security companies (PMSCs) operating both at the domestic and the global level. These companies have been the focus of extensive research. In International Relations the debate about the extent to which the rise of PMSCs poses profound challenges to conventional state based security is still reverberating. In other disciplines, including sociology, gender studies, criminology, political geography, philosophy, development studies and law, the rise of PMSCs has posed similar challenges and been the subject of equally intense discussion. Contrary to what might have been assumed, this pluri-disciplinarity has been enriching for the study of PMSCs. Scholars have almost invariably read, often collaborated, and sometimes even published beyond their own disciplines. As a consequence the study of PMSCs does not really have a disciplinary home. This, no doubt, is one of its attractions. But it also makes it meandering, as research is dispersed across disciplines and areas. With the field becoming increasingly established, to the point of figuring as a part of many study programmes curricula, there is a growing need for an overview and unity that does not erase the enriching multifaceted nature of the field. To provide precisely this is our ambition and rationale for publishing this handbook to the study of PMSCs.

The volume fills two very important functions. The first is to entice others to engage the study of PMSCs. Indeed, a core ambition of this companion is to demonstrate the breath, variety and significance of the field; to open up ways of thinking about the debate which may not seem obvious for those who approach the topic for the first time. In so doing we hope not only that scholars and students will find it more interesting but also that they may take it further into new directions. The second function is to guide research; to indicate the location of the paths, why they are interesting to walk, and also what the pitfalls might be. Indeed, to ensure that the companion fulfills these functions all the contributors have been asked to osition their own argument within ongoing academic debates, highlighting the interest of the arguments but also their limits and known pitfalls.

The volume is divided into four parts. The first reviews the issues that dominate the debate about how present-day PMSCs should be understood in historical perspective, including in relation to the international system, to multiple and diverse national systems, to statebuilding and to colonialism. The second introduces core issues surrounding the presence of PMSCs in contemporary security provision, covering issues ranging from PMSC presence in military operations to their role in securing urban space. This section is the longest and the most diverse as it is intended to capture the breath of PMSC activity. The third section covers issues relating to the desirability and possibility of regulating PMSCs. Finally, the fourth part looks at how PMSCs are themselves regulating core aspects of the contemporary world including security, gender, race, entertainment, and artistic taste. To introduce this structure and explain the nature and history of the field of study, the editors will provide a thorough introduction.

This book will be of much interest to students of private security companies, global governance, military studies, security studies and IR in general.

Anna Leander is Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy. She is editor of Commercialising Security in Europe (Routledge 2013), Business and Global Governance (Routledge 2010), and Constructivism and International Relations (Routledge 2006).

Rita Abrahamsen is Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She is author (with M.C. Williams) of Security Beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics (2011) and Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and the Good Governance Agenda in Africa (2000), and joint editor of African Affairs, the highest-ranked journal in the field.

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