Corporate Soldiers and International Security: The Rise of Private Military Companies

This book is the first to explore comprehensively the rise of UK Private Military Companies (PMCs) on the international stage. After illustrating early examples of private force, such as mercenary companies, which filled the ranks of European armies right up to the 1850s, Christopher Kinsey traces the development of UK PMCs from the mercenary organisations that operated in Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s through to the start of the rise of legally established private military companies in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, to today's private military companies which are now important contributors to international security and post-conflict reconstruction.

Christopher Kinsey is a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King's College London