The role of commercially provided security in Africa's patrimonial security complex

Abstract

This paper focuses on the degree to which commercial providers of security in Africa are embedded into patrimonial networks catering for exclusive private security interests of certain elites. Focusing on the issue of the private or public nature of commercially provided security in Africa through the prism of normative theory, this paper rather tries to lay an exploratory foundation for the understanding of the interests driving commercial providers of security in Africa.