Security Partnerships, Intelligence and the Recasting of the UK Monopoly of Violence in the 21st Century

Abstract

Certain factors engendered in the transition to the post-Cold War world figure prominently in explanations for the origins of the ongoing phenomenon of the privatisation of security. These factors include, inter alia, the downsizing of armed forces during the 1990s, which created a bountiful supply of personnel available for private military and security contracting. Further, the reinvention of state forces into highly specialised and technological machineries has fostered a greater dependence on the private sector, particularly for the maintenance of the new implements of warfare as well as military and security-related research and development (R&D). Intelligence agencies were also scaled down after the end of the Cold War, which released into the market a generation of specialists in possession of rare skills. The homeland security market, which encompasses myriad of private services and technologies designed to counteract the expansion of international terrorism after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States (US) (9/11), is also part of the narrative about the causes or consequences of the privatisation of security.