ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the concept of assemblage and the distinctiveness of assemblage thinking. The chapter introduces the Cape Town City Improvement District in South Africa, a global security assemblage that has produced new security practices and institutions and where the politics of protection. It draws on Saskia Sassen's work on globalization to explain the emergence of global security assemblages. The chapter emphasizes one of the benefits of assemblage thinking is its ability to capture chance and the emergent character of the social world. It shows that private security actors often operate in close co-operation with the state, and emerged as part of state restructuring and government policies. The chapter concludes that the state and the security field might be differently assembled in different places, it also allows for a deeper understanding of the politics of security and the forces and histories that produce different global security assemblages.
