Aymen Aulaiwi

Research Topic

Monopolising Violence? The Role of Private Security Companies in post-Soviet Russia's State-Building and Economy from 1991 to the Present 

My research seeks to understand the changing function of private security companies (PSCs) in post-Soviet Russia from 1991 to the present. In particular, their evolving relationship with the Russian state and economy. Private security companies matter for two key reasons: First, as private wielders of violence, they have significant implications for the state’s monopoly of violence, forcing scholars to reassess our understanding of state capacity and its importance for economic development. Second, by enforcing institutions like property rights, they represent an often-overlooked form of private institutional enforcement. 

The research instrumentalises a mixed-methods approach, combining newly collated quantitative data on over 38,000 PSCs in post-Soviet Russia, with qualitative sources such as press reports and company statements. Preliminary findings suggest that PSCs hindered state-building in the 1990s but were co-opted into state structures under Putin. Economically, while initially playing a destructive role, since the late 1990s they appear to have served a largely productive function.

Supervisor: Michael Rochlitz