Public functions are increasingly being outsourced to the private sector. This includes activities that impact on human rights and security. Drawing on insights from various disciplines, this book looks at the costs and benefits of privatization and at whether there are limits to this trend.

This book explores the human rights consequences of the new mercenarism, as channeled through so-called private military and security companies (PMSCs), and offers an overview of the evolution and status quo of both non-legal (soft law and self-regulation) and legal initiatives seeking to limit them. It addresses various topics, including the impact of the presence of non-state actors on human security using the cases of Afghanistan and Syria; research on PMSCs’ impact on human rights in specific cases; the insufficiency and ineffectiveness of existing direct and indirect legal prohibitions on the use of mercenaries; various aspects of international human rights law and international humanitarian law related to the conduct of PMSCs; soft-law and self-regulation mechanisms; and the international minimum standard in general international law regarding the privatization, export, import, and contracting of PMSCs.

This study presents intriguing analysis of the impact of private security companies' practices upon the fields of security and politics in the Czech Republic. It situates cases concerning ABL, the biggest Czech private security company, in the larger social, political, legal and economic contexts of the booming private security business. This company's extensive linkages with Czech politics suggest that the continued absence of specific legislation for the regulation of private security companies' activities is due to too much, rather than too little, political interest in their activities. This is problematic, arguably, because the practices of private security companies have already contributed to a significant transformation of the Czech security field by enhancing the commodification and depoliticization of security, while ABL's use of security methods for political purposes and a business approach to politics have profoundly transformed the field of politics. Reflecting the growing interest in the privatization of security, this timely study unpacks the relationship between politics, business and security in the Czech Republic.

In Private Military and Security Contractors (PMSCs) a multinational team of scholars and experts address a developing phenomenon: controlling the use of privatized force by states in international politics. Robust analyses of the evolving, multi-layered tapestry of formal and informal mechanisms of control address the microfoundations of the market, such as the social and role identities of contract employees, their acceptance by military personnel, and potential tensions between them. The extent and willingness of key states—South Africa, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel—to monitor and enforce discipline to structure their contractual relations with PMSCs on land and at sea is examined, as is the ability of the industry to regulate itself. Also discussed is the nascent international legal regime to reinforce state and industry efforts to encourage effective practices, punish inappropriate behavior, and shape the market to minimize the hazards of loosening states’ oligopolistic control over the means of legitimate organized violence. The volume presents a theoretically-informed synthesis of micro- and macro-levels of analysis, offering new insights into the challenges of controlling the agents of organized violence used by states for scholars and practitioners alike.

Public Safety and Security Administration addresses public safety and security from a holistic and visionary perspective. For the first time, safety and security organizations, as well as their administration, are brought together into an integrated work. The protection of persons and property involves many public agencies and priivate organizations. Entities from the criminal jutics system (law enforcement, courts, corrections) as well as the fire service, private security and hazardous materials all contribute to public safety and security. This book addresses these entities, as well as safety and security issues, from a holistic and visionary perspective. It addresses criminal and non-criminal safety and security concerns, provides an overview of each entity (component) of the system of public safety and security, presents an overview of the administration process involved in planning, organizing, managing and evaluating public safety and security organizations and describes collateral functions of investigations, documentation and report writing. Public safety and security organizations should not work in isolation. Rather, they should collaborate to protect persons and property. This book represents the first time all the public safety and security entities have been addressed in one text. Focuses on the theories, concepts, practices and problems related to the present and future of public safety and security Examines different strategies for problem solving which personnel working in the field may utilize Synthesizes college-level lectures prepared, presented, and updated by the author over the past twenty years

Human Rights or Global Capitalism examines the application of neoliberal policies from a human rights perspective and asks whether states, by outsourcing to the private sector many services with a direct impact on human rights, abdicate their responsibilities to uphold human rights and violate international law.

The conduct of armed conflict is increasingly being outsourced to private military and security companies, whose legal position remains unclear. This book identifies and analyses the human rights and humanitarian law framework applicable to these companies, examining how they can be held to account and how victims can obtain remedies.

This book argues that policing should be studied in a truly comparative manner as a way of identifying more accurately the diverse features of police organisations and the trends which affect contemporary policing. Studying policing comparatively is also a way to develop more sophisticated theories on the relations between police, state, and society aiming at higher degree of generalization. In particular, broadening the empirical basis, often limited to Western countries, favours the formulation of more encompassing theories. The comparative analysis, then, is used to refine meso or macro theories on various aspects of policing. The book covers the challenges of comparative research in diverse areas of policing studies with innovative tools and approaches to allow for the development of that subfield of policing. It is a significant new contribution to policing studies, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Public Policy, Sociology, Political Science and Law. The chapters in this book were originally published in Policing and Society.

The Markets for Force examines and compares the markets for private military and security contractors in twelve states: Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, China, Canada, and the United States. Editors Molly Dunigan and Ulrich Petersohn argue that the global market for force is actually a conglomeration of many types of markets that vary according to local politics and geostrategic context. Each case study investigates the particular characteristics of the region's market, how each market evolved into its current form, and what consequence the privatized market may have for state military force and the provision of public safety. The comparative standpoint sheds light on better-known markets but also those less frequently studied, such as the state-owned and -managed security companies in China, militaries working for private sector extractive industries in Ecuador and Peru, and the ways warlord forces overlap with private security companies in Afghanistan. An invaluable resource for scholars and policymakers alike, The Markets for Force offers both an empirical analysis of variations in private military and security companies across the globe and deeper theoretical knowledge of how such markets develop. Contributors: Olivia Allison, Oldich Bure, Jennifer Catallo, Molly Dunigan, Scott Fitzsimmons, Maiah Jaskoski, Kristina Mani, Carlos Ortiz, Ulrich Petersohn, Jake Sherman, Christopher Spearin.