ABSTRACT
This chapter draws a number of considerations around a specific form of contemporary state legitimacy. Such considerations are set against the backdrop of prevailing neoliberal ideology. It discusses on how managing organizations in competitive situations requires an understanding of the art and science of war, and how capturing markets is tantamount to winning battles. Business is one among numerous non-state actors often capturing not only markets, but also those very states that encourage or facilitate global, transnational economic activity. Its violence, more subtle than the one characterizing more bellicose non-state actors, is found in the impact it produces on vulnerable people across the globe and on the environment. Economic initiative and violent action have been examined less as metaphorical twins than as concrete doubles engaged in constant ideological and practical cross-fertilization. Finally, it clarified that the processes described here are far from being completely accomplished.
