ABSTRACT
The market for force has a long history and private security actors have throughout time shaped warfare, policing and state formation in various and important ways. In the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, for example, the condotta or contract system allowed business guilds, nobles and cities to hire private soldiers, while the Chartered Companies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often wielded extensive military capacities and employed their own police. Private security companies like Wells Fargo, Pinkerton and ADT dates back to the 1850s’ United States, and today it is easily forgotten that the first recognizable public police was founded in Britain as late as 1829. This long history aside, the contemporary market for force is of a different magnitude and arguably also of a different kind. Today, private security services are ubiquitous and the marketplace is truly global: private security companies guard shopping malls, residencies and public streets. They run prisons, detention centres, and even police receptions. They train armed forces and police, and perform intelligence assessments and risk analyses. They are engaged in cyber security, and develop, support and operate complex weapon systems. They escort convoys and ships, and provide personal security for diplomats, CEOs, NGO workers and journalists. The list could go on.
