The Military–Industrial Complex

The Private Militarized and Security Contractor as Geocorporeal Actor

“…Facilitated by the dominance of post–cold war markets, a constellation of forces have underpinned the rapid growth of the PMSC in recent years (Geraghty :22–31; Kinsey ; Berndtsson ). These include the downsizing of national militaries, providing for a large number of men trained in the legitimate discharge of violence, ripe for recruitment by PMSC (Cooling ); the growing availability of arms stocks on the open market that have helped to stimulate intrastate conflict (Singer :54); and the mass demobilization of national troops who have gone on to become involved in conflict in weaker states (Singer :38). Alongside these developments has been the increased outsourcing of traditional government functions that have in turn sparked debate around constitutional issues in the case of private security (Avant and Sigelman ).…”