This book examines the self-representation and identity politics of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs). PMSCs have become increasingly important over the past few decades. While their boom is frequently explained in functional terms, such as their cost-efficiency and effectiveness, this book offers an alternative explanation based on an analysis of the online self-presentations of forty-two US- and UK-based companies. PMSCs are shaping how they are perceived and establishing themselves as acceptable and legitimate security actors by eclectically appropriating identities more commonly associated with the military, businesses and humanitarian actors. Depending on their audience and clients’ needs, they can be professional hero warriors, or promise turn-key security solutions based on their exceptional expertise, or, in a similar way to humanitarians, reassure those in need of relief and try to make the world a better place. Rather than being merely public relations, the self-referential assertions of PMSCs are political. Not only do they contribute to a normalization of private security and reinforce an already ongoing blurring of lines between the public and private sectors, they also change what we deem to be ‘security’ and a ‘security actor’. This book will be of much interest to students of private military companies, critical security studies, military studies, security studies and IR.

Increasingly humanitarian NGOs operate in the context of armed conflicts where the security risks are higher than in contexts of natural disaster. Working in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is particularly dangerous for humanitarians. This existential threat affects the physical existence of aid workers and the implementation of humanitarian programs, and the core beliefs of humanitarians and the underlying principles of humanitarian action. For NGOs it is difficult to accept that they are attacked despite their good intentions, sometimes even by the very communities they seek to help. For these reasons, humanitarian NGOs have to change their approaches to security by not only adapting their policies, procedures and structures to the changing environment, but also reviewing the underlying principles of their work. This book contributes to debates by demonstrating how issues of (in)security affect humanitarian NGOs and the humanitarian identity, situating the structural changes within the humanitarian NGO community in the context of conflict aid governance and explains how non-state actors establish their own governance structures, independent from state-sponsored solutions, and contributes to the emerging literature on the redefinition of the concept of epistemic communities.

Sicherheitspolitik befindet sich weltweit im Prozess der Internationalisierung und Privatisierung. Dabei wandelt sich das Monopol der Staaten zur gewaltförmigen Durchsetzung von Sicherheitsbelangen grundlegend. Die Beiträge des Bandes beleuchten die Neuordnung globaler Sicherheit und die ihr zugrunde liegenden Antriebskräfte aus politik- und rechtswissenschaftlicher Perspektive.

Das Buch liefert in komprimierter Form einen Überblick über die wichtigsten unterschiedlichen theoretischen Zugriffe auf Sicherheit in den Internationalen Beziehungen und erläutert, was daraus für die wissenschaftliche Analyse relevanter Akteure, Strukturen und Prozesse folgt. Dies wird anhand konkreter Beispiele illustriert. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf Sicherheitsakteuren, -strukturen und -prozessen jenseits des Staates.