Mercenaries and War: Understanding Private Armies Today

Abstract

Mercenaries are more powerful than experts realize, a grave oversight. Those who assume they are cheap imitations of national armed forces invite disaster because for-profit warriors are a wholly different genus and species of fighter. Private military companies such as the Wagner Group are more like heavily armed multinational corporations than the Marine Corps. Their employees are recruited from different countries, and profitability is everything. Patriotism is unimportant, and sometimes a liability. Unsurprisingly, mercenaries do not fight conventionally, andtraditional war strategies used against them may backfire.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2019
Accession Number
AD1115550

Entities

People

  • Sean Mcfate

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Employment
  • Globalization
  • Health Services
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military History
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Private Military Companies
  • Recreation
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design