Across the globe, from mega-cities to isolated resource enclaves, the provision and governance of security takes place within assemblages that are de-territorialized in terms of actors, technologies, ...norms and discourses. They are embedded in a complex transnational architecture, defying conventional distinctions between public and private, global and local. Drawing on theories of globalization and late modernity, along with insights from criminology, political science and sociology, Security Beyond the State maps the emergence of the global private security sector and develops a novel analytical framework for understanding these global security assemblages. Through in-depth examinations of four African countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa – it demonstrates how global security assemblages affect the distribution of social power, the dynamics of state stability, and the operations of the international political economy, with significant implications for who gets secured and how in a global era.
The past two decades have witnessed the rapid proliferation of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in armed conflicts around the world, with PMSCs participating in, for example, offensive ...combat, prisoner interrogation and the provision of advice and training. The extensive outsourcing of military and security activities has challenged conventional conceptions of the state as the primary holder of coercive power and raised concerns about the reduction in state control over the use of violence. Hannah Tonkin critically analyses the international obligations on three key states - the hiring state, the home state and the host state of a PMSC - and identifies the circumstances in which PMSC misconduct may give rise to state responsibility. This analysis will facilitate the assessment of state responsibility in cases of PMSC misconduct and set standards to guide states in developing their domestic laws and policies on private security.
Twilight policing Diphoorn, Tessa G
2015., 20151020, 2015, 2015-10-20
eBook
South Africa boasts the largest private security sector in the entire world, reflecting deep anxieties about violence, security, and governance.Twilight Policingis an ethnographic study of the daily ...policing practices of armed response officers-a specific type of private security officer-and their interactions with citizens and the state police in Durban, South Africa. This book shows how their policing practices simultaneously undermine and support the state, resulting in actions that are neither public nor private, but something in between, something "twilight." Their performances of security are also punitive, disciplinary, and exclusionary, and they work to reinforce post-apartheid racial and economic inequalities. Ultimately,Twilight Policinghelps to illuminate how citizens survive volatile conditions and to whom they assign the authority to guide them in the process.
Effective Security Management, 5e, teaches practicing security professionals how to build their careers by mastering the fundamentals of good management. Charles Sennewald brings a time-tested blend ...of common sense, wisdom, and humor to this bestselling introduction to workplace dynamics. Working with a team of sterling contributors endowed with cutting-edge technological expertise, the book presents the most accurately balanced picture of a security manager's duties. Its Jackass Management cartoons also wittily illustrate the array of pitfalls a new manager must learn to avoid in order to lead effectively. In short, this timely revision of a classic text retains all the strengths that have helped the book endure over the decades and adds the latest resources to support professional development. * Includes a new chapter on the use of statistics as a security management tool * Contains complete updates to every chapter while retaining the outstanding organization of the previous editions * Recommended reading for The American Society for Industrial Security's (ASIS) Certified Protection Professional (CPP) exam
Abstract
Much writing in comparative criminology on the punitive turn and developments in Western penal states has focused on how the state provides security to its citizens. However, the number of ...private guards exceeds those of police officers in many European countries, and private security services carry out numerous law and order tasks. Our paper links the literature on private security with comparative penal policy studies. It explores how the cross-national variance in the relative importance of public and private security—which we term ‘the security balance’ – can be explained by quantitatively analysing data on public and private security in 23 European countries from 2009 to 2018. We contribute to the literature on crime and politics by highlighting the significant role of private security in today’s balance of security provision.
The existing literature is unclear about whether private military and security companies (PMSCs) are a cause of increased conflict severity, or rather are simply hired within more severe conflicts. ...We argue that PMSCs do increase conflict severity, yet this is the result of an escalation strategy by states to regain territory from rebels. If contracted, PMSCs either substitute for host nation forces, or free up such conventional forces to engage in offensive operations. In both cases the conflict severity increases substantially. This argument is tested with OLS regression using data from 30 weak states from 1990 to 2007.
This article assesses the influence of Private Security Companies' (PSCs') violence against insurgents and noncombatants on the frequency of insurgent attacks against PSCs during the 2004 to 2009 ...period of the Iraq War. It finds that PSC violence may have exerted fairly weak influence on short-term variations in the frequency with which insurgents attacked the firms. It also finds that variations in the frequency of insurgent attacks against PSCs may have been at least partly a side-effect of variations in the overall frequency of insurgent violence in Iraq that were, in turn, driven by events that were beyond the firms' control.
Abstract
Scholars of security governance generally assume that the labour of private security officers can straightforwardly be transformed into discrete commodities. We argue, by contrast, that it ...is extremely difficult to commodify the labour of private security officers because their duties frequently require them to confront and work through both economic responsibilities (what does my contract say?) and moral obligations (what does my conscience say?). We substantiate this argument by exploring how heroic acts performed by private security officers—such as preventing suicide attempts, intervening in violent assaults and orchestrating hazardous evacuations—are celebrated through industry awards ceremonies. In so doing, we not only contribute towards the conceptualization of security goods as contested commodities but also facilitate a reappraisal of the market for security.
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