Normalising Private Military Force

US Media Discourse and the Legitimization of Private Security Companies in Iraq

By: Christopher, Ph.D. Kearney

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Hardcover | 3 September 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
274 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
16.4 x 24.2 x 2.2

Hardcover

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This book examines the normalisation of Private Military and Security Companies, and analyses US media discourse around the Nisour Square incident in Iraq as a pivotal case.

States are increasingly relying on private military and security companies (PMSCs) to meet security needs. As a sign of ongoing normalisation, these companies are now increasingly targeted by soft law or self-regulation. Rejecting the common claim that âmercenaries have always been with usâ, this book sets out to analyse the underlying conditions that have allowed PMSCs to emerge in their uniquely contemporary incarnation. Divided into two parts, the book develops a novel poststructural framework of analysis to articulate social, political and affective conditions that enabled PMSCs to prevail despite controversy. It draws on and operationalizes their logics-based approach, while developing it further with corpus linguistics, and applies this framework to a large corpus of American mainstream media articles. The volume contributes to efforts aiming to overcome the alleged âmethodological deficitâ of discourse analysis, while highlighting the importance of making unconsciously held truths visible.

This book will be of interest to students of private security companies, military studies, critical security studies and International Relations.

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