The state and other entities: Monopolizing the legitimate private usage of force

The encroachment on the state’s monopoly of the legitimate use of the means of violence has been the center of academic debate for a decade. During this period, the market for force gained levels of legitimacy, and at present offers a set of services that compete and/or complement the state capacities in the field of security. In this paper, I focus on the consolidation trends within this market of force, trying to determine where this newly acquired power by the private sector rests. To do so, I utilize an original dataset of over 1500 private military and security companies from across the globe to follow patterns of new companies, liquidation of companies, and mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Preliminary findings indicate that the private military and security industry’s structure trajectory is similar to leading industries structures, with most notable findings of the broad use of indirect ownership and cross holding. The implication of this trend is the concentration of the market for force within a few actors.