Book Review: Maya Eichler (ed.), Gender and Private Security in Global Politics
| Author | Hannah Partis-Jennings |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916676758 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsGeneral Politics |
Book Reviews 123
regulations come from? Can the media nurture
and stimulate active democratic citizenship if
the government, authorities and capital inter-
vene and invest in the interests of the media?
The book makes an attempt to answer such
questions and explains that even political inter-
ests can become media interests.
The growth in marketisation and changes in
technology have also transformed the ways of
news channels and journalism. The book lays a
valid argument that the task of the media is to
present ‘what it is’ rather than ‘what it should
be’, despite the fact that the viewers cannot
measure the level of truth that is being served
to them when there is no instrument to measure
the same. The book focuses on the power of
scandals which can influence the reform of
public institutions and practices. Some of the
chapters are based on empirical studies, but
generally, the language of the book is not dif-
ficult to comprehend and the terminology is
also understandable for general readers. The
independent role of the media or journalists per
se could have been highlighted and this is
something which is missing. Overall, however,
regarding its references, structure, themes and
arguments, the book is well organised and well
written.
Twinkle Siwach
(Jawaharlal Nehru University)
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916666789
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Gender and Private Security in Global
Politics by Maya Eichler (ed.). Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015. 286pp., £19.99 (p/b), ISBN
9780199364381
This edited book focuses on private military
security actors and companies at different levels
of praxis (individual, collective, legal, symbolic)
from a gender perspective. Each chapter deals
with a differently gendered component of private
security, within four overarching sections on the
state, empire, masculinities and ethics/accounta-
bility. It sets out to provide a multifaceted
encounter with private security, seeking to
expand the remit of feminist security studies,
taking account of the liberal market logics and
embodied or symbolic meanings of privately
contracted militarism. Chapters focus on such
diverse areas as: media reaction to the sexualised
hazing practices of American Embassy guard
staff in Kabul; legal accountability mechanisms
for private companies; contractor training dis-
courses which reflect their most valued styles of
masculinity; the reproductive labour of third
country nationals; and company websites’ gen-
dered narratives. The book seeks to offer a vari-
ety of ways to view the increasing privatisation
of violence as a feminist concern.
The strength of the book lies in its connect-
edness. By this I mean multiple things. First,
the intra-textual dialogue between chapters
creates substantial thematic and analytic cohe-
sion. Authors reference each other and link into
each other’s levels of exploration directly or
implicitly so that the book presents (for the
most part) as a tight-knit unified whole. Paul
Higate and Maya Eichler’s chapters, addressing
very different kinds of gendered protection, talk
to each other particularly well. Second, and
relatedly, the multiple levels at which gender
resonates with and defines the meaning of pri-
vate security is brilliantly highlighted. The
body, the market and the state system (for
instance) appear networked and linked together
within a connected interpretation of structural
and individual praxis. This contributes to a
sense that to unpack the gendering of private
security is to access a key component of global
interactions in our world. It also highlights the
relevance of everyday and embodied aspects to
structural conditions, placing them in analytical
parallel. Finally, the book connects race/nation-
ality and gender in an intersectional dynamic
from which neither part can be logically sepa-
rated and demonstrates how these facets of
power relations and hierarchy are deeply impli-
cated within others, such as economics and law.
In the final part of the book, the different writ-
ing style (legalistic/philosophical) is a slightly
awkward fit, and the flow and readability of the
work is disrupted, but this aside, it makes a fan-
tastic contribution to the field.
Hannah Partis-Jennings
(University of St Andrews)
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929916676758
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
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