Who Are the Private Military and Security Contractors? A Window to a New Profession

Answering calls for more descriptive information on the private contractor population, this chapter analyzes employee profiles and job histories for those working as private security and military contractors in the last decade. The authors investigate a unique dataset built from the LinkedIn social network, which consists of employees randomly sampled from twelve of the major organizations in the private security and military industry. The analysis describes the demographics, military and education backgrounds, career trajectories, and professional affiliations of these employees. Contextualizing these findings in the broader literature, the authors take initial steps towards explaining who private contractors are and what do they do.