Privatisation of security

Although the phenomenon of privatisation of security has been the subject of heated debate in Western countries for at least two decades, in the Czech Republic it came to the centre of attention only thanks to the cases of the largest Czech private security company ABL (now M2. C). The authors therefore analyse and contrast foreign and Czech experiences with privatisation of security. They summarize the findings of the existing research on the causes of security privatization, present the so far neglected aspects of security privatization, including the issue of volunteerism of individual citizens and their associations in providing security, or the use of services of private military and security companies by NGOs in (post)conflict areas. They focus on the activities of private security services in the Czech Republic.