Private Military Companies: to State Transformation and the Pulic Management of Security

Abstract

The involvement of Private Military Companies (PMCs) in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq has engendered many concerns in the public. Although the wide coverage of their activities by the news media has contributed to present PMCs anew, their proliferation builds on decades of state transformation and the gradual penetration of the state monopoly of violence by private actors. This article argues that New Public Management has enmeshed historical dynamics in a way that helps explaining the apparently novel nature of the phenomenon and the broader consolidation of the market for private military services in the twenty-first century. It is hoped that the technical nature of the argument will contribute to open up a constructive debate at a time when unfolding trends suggest an expansion of the activities of PMCs in Latin America and beyond.