The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security. By Deborah D. Avant. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 310p. $75.00 cloth, $29.99 paper.

Next to the United States, which entity controls the largest number of personnel operating, mostly with arms, in Iraq? Great Britain? Think again. Following the 150,000 American troops in that conflict-plagued “liberated” country are about 20,000 employees of more than 60 private security companies (PSCs). They come from around the world: the United States, South Africa, Fiji, Chile, Israel, and Nepal, to mention just a few. Most are former military or police officials, now under contracts issued to PSCs by the United States, Great Britain, and even the United Nations.