Conclusion and Future Directions

The increased use of PMSCs challenges conventional civil-military concepts regarding security functions being delivered most effectively and legitimately through the state. In practice, this might reduce the ability of states to control violence and be accountable for misconduct. These observations led to the focus of this book regarding the privatization of security within the Australian context, how Australia uses PMSCs and the impact that the PMSC industry has on Australia’s control over the use of forceUse of force. Diverging from conventional observations regarding outsourcing of the military, security privatization and the changing relationship between use of forceUse of force and the state, this research examined Western norms concerning the use of forceUse of force to document the shifting of relationships between the state and violence within past and present contexts.