This paper contributes to an understanding of the processes of contestation and localisation of norms in post-conflict societies via a Bourdieu-inspired analysis of the process of security privatisation in two former Yugoslav countries: Bosnia and Serbia. By drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, capital and strategies, this paper sheds light on the ways in which, in Bosnia as well as in Serbia, a particular habitus and forms of capital inherited from these polities’ violent past have shaped the implementation of the liberal project of security privatisation. The result has been a situation in which legislation and institutions aimed at promoting a liberal model of security provision co-exist with practices that are inconsistent with liberal-democratic principles of accountability and respect for human rights and the rule of law.