| Mar 13, 2025
The Geopolitics of Private Security: Part I – A Typology of Private Security in the Global Context
This is the first installation of Convoy Group’s new series, The Geopolitics of Global Private Security. Each installation will deal with either a specific aspect of the industry or discuss industry functions within a particular region. This introductory article will provide a typology of the industry by explaining the range of services the sector provides domestically and internationally and who the industry’s primary customers are.
The Geopolitics of Private Security: Series Introduction
The 21st Century’s key political problems are a complex and diverse series of security threats. Climate change, economic instability, terrorism, and rapidly evolving information systems create specific security concerns for all types of actors across the globe. The challenging and constantly changing global security environment is reflected in the rapid growth of the global security industry. The market size of the private security industry globally is expected to more than double to $531.5 billion by 2032.
Domestic Private Security Services
The domestic private security industry in the United States is as well-regulated as any in the world, but definitions of what constitutes the industry vary. Private Security companies must be licensed to operate in individual states or municipalities, and the process and qualifications required to acquire a license vary by location.
Clifford Simonsen, in his book Private Security in America, defines private security on page 23 as “individual and organizational measure and efforts [as Distinguished from public law enforcement agency efforts] that provide protection for person and property.” This is a great definition, but a more concise way to think of the industry is that private security companies are private entities that protect and secure an organization’s valuable assets.
The private security space is a nearly 50 billion dollar industry in the United States with diverse customer needs. Private security companies also are diverse in price point and quality of service. Event security personnel for large events like concerts and sporting events often get paid around $20 an hour with minimal training, while executive protection specialists can make north of $100,000 a year.
Private security companies provide services under a few broadly defined categories: physical security, information systems security, training, consulting, and intelligence. This series will dive deeper into the domestic services landscape in a later installment.
Global Private Security Services
Many American security companies also operate abroad for private entities. They deliver the same services they provide domestically, and their customers can be either American or other national actors. American private security companies operating globally can be subject to American and international law depending on their area of operation.
Most Americans’ typical image of private security abroad is that of a private military contractor (PMC) with rifles and body armor in an unmarked uniform. Private military contractors are sometimes referred to as private military security contractors. This series will refer to private companies contracted by the United States government as private military contractors because these companies often provide services other than security (ex: communications or logistics) that do not fall under the traditional security umbrella.
PMCs offer the government immediate solutions to fill gaps in their operational capacities at comparative cost savings. Since 1994, the United States has entered contracts with 12 PMCs totaling over $300 billion. It is estimated that in 2007, nearly half of all American personnel in Iraq were private contractors. The growth of PMCs will profoundly affect how the US military operates in the future, and we will explore these geopolitical implications in future installments of this series.
International Outlook of the Private Security Industry
This series will include installments on the private security industries in other countries and regions. Depending on the country, private security companies work in extremely different legal and business environments. Other governments use private military contractors of their own.
American PMCs are governed by legal frameworks that strictly regulate their use of force, while other countries, like Russia, use companies like Wagner Group to conduct combat operations. Muddled international laws and regulations make the context in which private security operates radically different globally.
Geopolitical Implications of the Private Security Industry
The rapid growth of the private security industry will profoundly affect individual states’ internal politics. It will change how states compete and interact in the international system. Industry leaders and policymakers may or may not contemplate the political impact of their organization’s operations, but industry growth will inevitably cause change in multiple political arenas.
The growth of the private security industry in the United States will have a subtle but important role to play in domestic politics. Privacy law is a contested and evolving subject in the digital age. Many controversial subjects, from facial ID scans to personal data rights, will affect how private security companies operate as well as their business forecasts. The legal landscape is already diverse in the United States, with each state having its own licensing and regulatory frameworks. Firms unaware of this evolving landscape could miss growth opportunities or leave themselves legally vulnerable.
The international legal framework governing PMCs is as complex and contested as domestic law. The International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries entered into force in 2001 and is legally binding for all international signatories. Article 47 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 denies combatant rights to mercenaries. There are debates, however, about whether PMCs can be classified as mercenaries. The United States considers DoD-contracted PMCs to be civilian non-combatants. The limited number of signatory states to international conventions governing the private use of force reflects state reluctance to engage in this legal gray area.
Governments are rapidly adapting PMCs to be another tool of statecraft. PMCs allow states to fill capability gaps rapidly by saving states money in personnel costs and time to train individuals. Multiple governments have been willing to use PMCs in offensive capacities on the battlefield. Other states could engage in copycat behavior and further degrade norms against using mercenaries in combat.
States can utilize PMCs for covert action and intelligence operations. PMCs can be opaque organizations with limited publicly available information. Employing states can potentially claim plausible deniability for involvement in PMC-related incidents. PMCs will be another tool in the arsenal of states in the hybrid and irregular wars of the 21st Century.
In traditional international relations scholarship, states are considered the primary actors in the international system. However, in the 21st Century, non-state actors can exert significant influence. Terrorist organizations, NGOs, and high-value individuals can influence the outcomes of political events. The same can be true for PMCs, exemplified by the 2023 aborted Wagner Group rebellion in Russia.
Like any corporation, PMCs’ primary motivation is profit. They want to complete tasks for governments successfully, but their incentive structure is not wholly aligned with their employing state’s interests quite like a traditional military. In a world where PMCs become more critical in geopolitics, they will have their own political motivations that policymakers must consider.
Future Installments of The Geopolitics of Private Security Series
This series will explore the topics touched upon in this article and others in future installments. Security risks are a web of interconnected threats in a rapidly evolving world. An industry leader must understand these threats and how the private security sector is rising to meet the tasks. We have already seen PMCs exert their quasi-independent weight on the world stage. Policymakers need to be informed about PMCs to make informed decisions.
Future installments in this series will be published here: The Watch Blog | Convoy Group | Pittsburgh, PA, as well as on our LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/97441131/