Postcoloniality and Race in Global Private Security Markets

The political and economic phenomena giving rise to private military and security companies (PMSCs) and broader trends of security commercialization are attracting the attention of academics from the disciplines of international relations (IR) and security studies, feminist security studies and criminology. These literatures have filled important gaps in research on PMSCs by making visible the ways commercial security is a product of larger neoliberal narratives and norms, how commercial security operations remasculinize security, how they impede women’s participation, and how the security industry creates a gendered division of labour.