Introduction

The market for force has a long history and private security actors have throughout time shaped warfare, policing and state formation in various and important ways. Even as studies focus on the theoretical implications, or investigate the ethics of security privatization, this is a research area that has evolved in close dialogue with practice and the real-world problematics arising from the increasing role of companies and markets in security provision. The chapter shows the shifting historical relations between the public and private and historical continuities of contemporary security privatization. It also shows how what we today call the public police originated from within the private sector, and how private companies and private force were central to European imperial expansion. The chapter discusses the crucial issue of regulation, focusing on both soft and hard law. It also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.