S

Markets, Men, and Mercenaries Private Security

through the Lens of Gender, Race, and Global Political Economy

Dr. Amanda Chisholm (Newcastle University)Dr. Saskia Stachowitsch (University of Vienna)

Private Security in Popular Culture

A Global Business

Popular Imaginings of Security Contractors

• White• Western• Male• Heterosexual• Hi-Tech Weaponry• Violent• Professional

Media Scandals: Contractor Violence and Gender-based

Exploitation

Self-Representations of the Industry

Private Security is also about…

Unarmed security at shopping centers and special events

Personal Protection

Airport Security

Insurance and Risk

Consultancy and Training

Policy Advisory

The Austrian Case

Academic Inquiries

Historical perspectives

Regulation, accountability

Implications for democracy and policy

State erosion (or not?)

Critical approaches (Anna Leander)

Gender and Private Security

• Masculinity Studies

• Feminist International

Relations

• Feminist Security Studies

• Feminist State Theories

• Postcolonial Theory

• Critical Military Studies

Political Economies of Private Security

Security as Labour:

Feminist Global Political Economy (GPE) Global military labour chains/labour migration Gendered and racialised divisions of labour The invisible labour The everyday as constitutive of global security

markets

Martial Race and Private Security• Rooted in colonial

encounters• Biology as race• Construction of the

ideal military colonial solider

• Altered local political economies

• Continue to be preferred global South security contractors

Gurkhas in Private Security• 200 years military

service with the British• Constructed through

colonial martial race logic

• Racial heritage mediates the kinds of work they do

Gurkha Wives• Integral to the

military/security labour chains

• Militarised families

Militarising Women’s Labour

The supportive wives The grieving wives

Conclusions

• PMSCs are profoundly shaping security governance

• PMSCs are reconstructing global labour relations

• The security market reproduces gendered and racialised inequalities

• These security practices are constituted through the everyday

Routledge Handbook of Private Security Studies (ed. R. Abrahamsen, A. Leander)

Gender and Private Security in Global Politics (ed. M. Eichler)

newcastle.academia.edu/AmandaChisholm

homepage.univie.ac.at/saskia.stachowitsch

Further Reading