This article analyzes recent measures designed to control private violence and offers a new perspective on the privatization of the State. The increasing use of private security companies by States reveals both the extension and normalization of commercial reasoning as a method of governing, even in situations of war. Yet, the limits of the security market and the subsequent implementation of regulations aimed at controlling this business activity suggests that the vision of a withdrawal of state involvement should be reconsidered. The three-phased emergence of regulations progressively reintroducing the state will result in confirming the legitimate and sovereign role of the State, within the context of outsourcing control of violence.