The 2010–2011 Arab uprisings constituted a wake-up call to authoritarian regimes. In this book, Engy Moussa demonstrates how the multifaceted changes affecting the market for security, particularly the booming privatization of security, were central to authoritarian survival across the region. By investigating the privatization of security since 2011, Moussa argues that this phenomenon is deeply influenced by regime security and interests, with serious political ramifications. At times, it fails to support democratization efforts. In other cases, it endorses authoritarian consolidation through advanced co-optation and repression, and expansive patrimonial networks. Recognizing the global growth of private security, this innovative work pushes beyond the Arab region and generates an analytical framework to study the manifestations and impact of security market reconfigurations across cases. By comparing Tunisia and Egypt, Moussa shows how post-uprisings outcomes depend on key generalized factors interacting with unique local dynamics amidst an evolving, unpredictable and hardly controlled process.

‘Tracing the relationship between the global private security industry and the resurgence of authoritarian rule in Arab states, Moussa offers a cautionary tale relevant to understanding Middle East politics but also instructive for other contexts where authoritarianism is on the rise.'

Deborah Avant - Distinguished University Professor and Sié Chéou-Kang Chair, Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, University of Denver

‘Engy Moussa's ‘Outsourcing Authoritarianism' is a timely and original contribution to the study of authoritarian resilience after the Arab uprisings. Through a rich comparison of Tunisia and Egypt, Moussa shows that private security actors are not merely commercial providers of protection, but part of the evolving machinery of regime survival, social control and political adaptation. Carefully researched and theoretically sharp, this book opens an important new field of inquiry into the changing architecture of authoritarian power in the Middle East drawing on state and market.'

Andreas Krieg - Associate Professor of Security Studies, King's College London

'Engy Moussa's groundbreaking study reveals how the private security industry has propped up authoritarian rule in the wake of the Arab Spring. Her analysis of Egypt and Tunisia exposes the hidden role of private actors in the machinery of political control. ‘Outsourcing Authoritarianism’ is essential reading for understanding the modern security state.'

Nicholas Lotito - Princeton University