Privatisation of Security and Military Functions and the Demise of the Modern Nation-State in Africa

Abstract

The world today is characterized by the increasing commodification and privatisation of public goods, a decline in law and order, a demise in state centrality, and more worryingly, the fracturing of state military and security apparatuses. The state has lost its monopoly of and over organised violence. Beset by a plethora of threats, processes, and actors, the state has found itself increasingly incapable of monopolising violence emanating from above, below, and across the state. At the same time, the state has surrendered its role as the sole legitimate provider and guarantor of security to private security and military providing agents. The emergence of a legitimised private security industry, and of private non-state security providing actors, apart from the state, is a significant development for the state system and for international relations(IR). It challenges over three hundred years of accepted ontology regarding the state as having the sole legitimate right to force and...