Normalising Private Military Force: US Media Discourse and the Legitimization of Private Security Companies...

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Christopher Kearney, Ph.D.

Normalising Private Military Force

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

Christopher Kearney, Ph.D.

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English

Routledge
03 September 2025

Regional studies; Social research & statistics; Armed conflict; Theory of warfare & military science; Defence strategy, planning & research

Series: Routledge Private Security Studies

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

States are increasingly relying on PMSCs to meet security needs. As a sign of ongoing normalization, these companies are now increasingly targeted by soft law or self-regulation. Rejecting the common claim that ‘mercenaries have always been with us’, this book sets out to analyse the underlying conditions that have allowed PMSCs to emerge in their uniquely contemporary incarnation. Divided into two parts, this book develops a novel poststructural framework of analy-sis to articulate social, political, and affective conditions that enabled PMSCs to prevail despite controversy. It draws on and operationalizes the Essex School’s logics-based approach, while developing it further with corpus linguistics, and ap-plies this framework to a large corpus of American mainstream media articles. The volume contributes to efforts aiming to overcome the alleged ‘methodological deficit’ of discourse analysis, while highlighting the importance of making uncon-sciously held truths visible.

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

By: Christopher Kearney Ph.D.
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 670g
ISBN: 9781041019381
ISBN 10: 1041019386
Series: Routledge Private Security Studies
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 03 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christopher Kearney is Project Manager at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, Germany, and has a PhD from the University of Bamberg, Germany.

Reviews for Normalising Private Military Force: US Media Discourse and the Legitimization of Private Security Companies in Iraq

‘A compelling voice in the next generation of Essex School scholars, Kearney delivers a theoretically sophisticated and analytically rigorous piece of work. Methodologically innovative in combining poststructuralist discourse analysis with corpus linguistics, this monograph makes a substantial contribution to Critical Security Studies.’ Jason Glynos, University of Essex, UK ‘Through a highly sophisticated and meticulous analysis of the discourse surrounding the Nisour Square incident, Kearney's monograph offers an innovative look at social, political and affective processes that contributed to further normalising Private Military Companies during the Iraq War.’ Monika Heupel, University of Bamberg, Germany