This book explores criminal threat to commercial security and the problem of the ethical control of political and criminal risk alongside and in the absence of government. Theoretically, it links ethics to geopolitics and political economy. Security Ethics: Commerce and Crime in a Polycentric World builds from well-known thinkers, but not theorists typically found in books of applied ethics and security studies. Chapters include Francisco de Vitoria’s account of just war applied to pirates; John Locke on dignity and the illegal trade in body parts; David Hume on community justice combatting cartels; Adam Smith on luxury and knockoffs; Bakunin and anarchist gunrunning; Johan Huizinga on play and crime; David Ross on corporate obligation in the face of partizan risk to hotel security; Carl Schmitt on geography and smuggling; Aurel Kolnai on privilege and corporate secrets; and David Petraeus, author of The US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, respecting ecotage and commercial legitimacy.

Graham James McAleer is a Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, USA. His previous monographs appeared with Fordham University Press, Routledge, University of Notre Dame Press, and Catholic University of America Press. His research interest is political theory, specifically the relation between violence and rule of law.