ABSTRACT
Private military and security companies (PMSCs) and contractors raise quintessential issues of global governance—they have become both subjects and objects of administration as international organizations endeavor to regulate them. This chapter explores the peculiar form of market-based violence, explaining what it is and how it is governed. It examines the configuration of economic, military, and political factors that explain the genesis and evolution of PMSCs. The chapter surveys the contemporary characteristics of the private military and security sector, including examples of major companies and the range of customers. It reviews relevant core principles and regulatory schema that shape usage of PMSCs and the behavior of armed contractors. The chapter considers the preeminent issues that inform or should inform pivotal debates regarding PMSCs. The organizational and functional elements of PMSCs resemble the military and mercantile companies of the medieval and early modern periods more than the individual and bands of mercenaries that endured into the twentieth century.
