The U.S. national military hires private security companies (PSCs) to operate in zones of conflict. This article introduces the concept of a legitimacy transfer mechanism to answer the question of how nonnational providers of military support can be considered legitimate actors in areas of conflict. PSCs borrow legitimacy from the state that contracts the firm. Private firms do not operate alone; they are hired and, at least marginally, directed by a state. By using the established legitimacy of industrialized states these firms are able to find legitimacy in Western security culture. To maintain future business, private security is forced to obey the security culture of the hiring state. More so, the firm will mimic the goals and policy of the hiring state in an attempt to build its own, independent, sense of legitimacy.