Security beyond the state : private security in international politics / Rita Abrahamsen, Michael C. Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abrahamsen, Rita, 1966- author.

Williams, Michael C. (Michael Charles), 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Security, International.

Private security services.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 272 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Across the globe, from mega-cities to isolated resource enclaves, the provision and governance of security takes place within assemblages that are de-territorialized in terms of actors, technologies, norms and discourses. They are embedded in a complex transnational architecture, defying conventional distinctions between public and private, global and local. Drawing on theories of globalization and late modernity, along with insights from criminology, political science and sociology, Security Beyond the State maps the emergence of the global private security sector and develops a novel analytical framework for understanding these global security assemblages. Through in-depth examinations of four African countries - Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa - it demonstrates how global security assemblages affect the distribution of social power, the dynamics of state stability, and the operations of the international political economy, with significant implications for who gets secured and how in a global era.

Contents:

The untold story: the globalization of private security

Late modernity and the rise of private security

Power and governance: global assemblages and the security field

Of oil and diamonds: global security assemblages in resource extraction

Safer cities or cities of walls?: the politics of urban global security assemblages

Security, politics, and global assemblages.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-99366-8

1-107-21728-8

1-282-96722-3

9786612967221

0-511-97444-2

0-511-99147-9

0-511-99049-9

0-511-98867-2

0-511-99246-7

0-511-98687-4

OCLC:

700706189