ABSTRACT
The role of private security in Iraq is simply the latest chapter in the private security boom. While the state’s monopoly on the use of force which Max Weber (1964) wrote about was exaggerated from the start and there has been a role for the private sector in security for some time, in the past two decades that role has grown and is larger and more different now than it has been since the foundation of the modern state. PSCs now provide more services and more kinds of services including some that have been considered core military capabilities in the modern era. In addition, changes in the nature of armed conflicts have led tasks less central to the core of modern militaries (such as operating complex weapons systems and policing) to be subcontracted to PSCs. Furthermore, states are not the only organizations that hire security providers. Increasingly transnational non-state actors (NGOs, multinational corporations and others) are financing security services to accomplish their goals. In sum, a burgeoning transnational market for force now exists alongside the system of states and state forces.
