This book explores the ways in which affect, colonial histories, and militarism organise global security workforces within private military and security companies (PMSCs). It locates its analysis with Gurkhas; a group of militarised men from Nepal with over 200-years of military experience with the British and Indian armies and the Singaporean police, who now participate as security contractors in global markets. These men are celebrated in British popular culture for their heroic martial attributes and their broader military service to the United Kingdom. However, less known, is the fact that many Gurkhas located back in Nepal and their families are drawn into these markets under often exploitative relations. Drawing upon over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork with unprecedented access to these security communities throughout Nepal and in Afghanistan, the book's motivating questions are how security is made through these market relations and how is this security experienced by Gurkhas and their families.

This book provides a socio-legal perspective to critical military studies by asking socio-legal questions about military conscription in Turkey: How do the international and domestic laws approach the conflict between the law and conscience? Why does Turkey insist on the non-recognition of the right to conscientious objection? How are those pursuing their conscience affected by such non-recognition? These questions are important as the law is shaped by the socio-cultural structures in which it operates, and any attempt to create a social change also necessitates understanding and challenging the legal framework. In this light, the book argues that one cannot fully understand and, as a result, resist the militarisation of society without understanding the relationship between the law and social norms.