The Market for Force

　　The legitimate use of force is generally presumed to be the realm of the state. However, the flourishing role of the private sector in security over the last twenty years has brought this into question. In this book Deborah Avant examines the privatization of security and its impact on the control of force. She describes the growth of private security companies, explains how the industry works, and describes its range of customers – including states, non-government organisations and commercial transnational corporations. She charts the inevitable trade-offs that the market for force imposes on the states, firms and people wishing to control it, suggests a new way to think about the control of force, and offers a model of institutional analysis that draws on both economic and sociological reasoning. The book contains case studies drawn from the US and Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East.

List of figure and tables page ix
List of acronyms x
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction
 ??Private security and the control of force: the question
 ??Private security and the control of force: the answer
 ??A transnational market for military and security services
 ??Mercenaries, privatization, and other slippery terms
 ??The current market compared
 ??Why the current market?
 ??Plan of the book 
2 Private security and the control of force
 ??Clarifying the control of force
 ??How should privatization affect the control of force?
 ??State contracts for private force
 ??State regulation of private security
 ??Non-state financing and the control of force
 ??Methods and claims
3 State capacity and contracting for security
 ??Sierra Leone's contracts for military services
 ??Croatia's contracts for military services
 ??US contracts for military services
 ??Comparisons 
4 Dilemmas in state regulation of private security exports
 ??The United States
 ??South Africa
 ??The United Kingdom
 ??Transnational markets and political trade-offs 
5 Private financing for security and the control of force
 ??Transnational corporate financing and the control of force
 ??Humanitarian relief in war zones
 ??Conserving nature in the state of nature
 ??Comparisons
6 Market mechanisms and the diffusion of control over force
 ??Market mechanisms
 ??Diffusion of control
 ??Institutional innovations
 ??Competing mechanisms, conflict, and change in history
 ??Discussion 
7 Conclusion
 ??Institutional mechanisms and political processes
 ??Globalization, the state, and the sovereign system
Bibliography
Index