This article will consider private military and security companies (further referred to as PMSCs) as violent, non-state actors and as a threat to existing theories of the state system. This article uses the case study of PMSCs used to protect private vessels travelling through the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden against piracy. It describes the way that PMSCs became involved in this sector and how they continue to stifle piracy, in accordance with state-centred efforts..