ABSTRACT
In September 2014 four civilians working for the UK-owned Group 4 Securicor (G4S) received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for their actions during an attack on the British Council compound in Kabul in 2011. The four men, all former soldiers who had served in the British Brigade of Gurkhas, were the first private security operatives to receive such an award, making this a significant step in the convergence of, and overlap between, the two sectors: private military and security companies (PMSCs) and the national armed forces. As veterans with over 50 collective years of army experience, they typify a well-established pattern whereby military-trained personnel transfer into the private sector. But there are other reasons why these hardened ex-soldiers provide a fitting introduction to this chapter on the dynamics of race and ethnicity in the private security sphere.
