'In Private Security and Identity Politics, Joachim and Schneiker offer us important new insights into the global politics of security privatization. They convincingly move the focus beyond ongoing debates on private versus public, and the services PMSCs provide. Instead, the authors offer a detailed analysis of the multiple (gendered) identities that private security actors wield to gain economic and political power and re-shape our understandings of security. Their findings have crucial implications for theory and policy making on private security. By bringing the politics of identity construction into the field of private security studies, Joachim and Schneiker also illuminate broader contemporary trends in global security. This book will be of great interest to scholars of private security and anyone working on issues of security and international relations today.'-- Maya Eichler, Editor of Gender and Private Security in Global Politics'This highly innovative study makes a distinct and important contribution to the literature on private security. Examining the identity politics through which PMSCs represent themselves as ethical hero warriors, professional security experts, and benevolent humanitarians, Joachim and Schneiker show how PMSCs not only influence security practices, but also our understanding of what it means to be a humanitarian and a soldier.' -- Rita Abrahamsen, University of Ottawa, Canada