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In recent years, the popularity of the word mercenary and the acronym PMCs (private military company) has increased in scientific and public discourses, which a number of experts associate with the changing world order. The article seeks to identify the reasons for the use of mercenary military force by international actors. The author proceeds from the fact that the fundamental reasons of the mercenary-customer partnership, remain unchanged and are not subject to changes occurring both within States and in the international system. These reasons originate from the imperfections of the military apparatus, which are referred to in the article as "flaws". The author identifies 3 levels of flaws: political, organizational and executive. The political level represents the risks associated with the use of military force for the decision-maker. Hired military force is used to hedge such risks. Problems of the organizational level can be seen in various features of the preparation of a military operation and are often associated with the limitations or slowness of the bureaucratic apparatus. The advantage of a private contractor is greater flexibility. Executive-level problems stem from the inefficiency of the armed forces in carrying out specific combat tasks. Mercenaries often have unique skills and embrace innovations faster than the public sector. Despite the fact that more specific reasons for the use of mercenary military force may depend on the characteristics of the historical period and the political system, the three-level classification of flaws is applicable both over the entire time period and in the vast majority of spheres, including cyberspace.

The mercenary phenomenon took on a particularly large scale of manifestation in the contemporary stage. Currently, their presence on the battlefield is no longer a secret. They can appear at various stages of the evolution of the military conflict, military actions or other violent actions aimed at overthrowing or undermining the constitutional order or violating the territorial integrity of the state. The activity of mercenaries is dictated either by the need of the people participating in these actions to benefit from some remuneration according to expectations, or by subjects who are in the shadows and pursue some goals and objectives to be achieved. Therefore, in the following order, we propose, as desired, to carry out an analysis of the presence of mercenaries in the State of Libya, as well as to study their role on the Libyan territory.

Military companies of mercenaries often proved their effectiveness in battle, allowing the ruler who called them to successfully resist external enemies and cope with opposition forces within the city-state. At the same time, military mercenarism gave rise to many new problems: low loyalty to the employer due to low personal interest, threats to the security of the lands in which they were hired, the presence of political ambitions of the leaders of mercenary detachments who were able to organize a coup d’etat and seize power. The intensive displacement of the city militia by detachments of condottieri in many respects instilled anxiety among statesmen and humanists, but the outstanding Italian thinker Niccolo Machiavelli became the main «denouncer» of all the shortcomings of military mercenarism, concerned that mercenaries were the force that could destroy the communal community and the republican order: every condottiere pursued primarily his own interests, in contrast to the citizens of the city-state, who were ready to give their lives for their land.At the same time, Niccolo Machiavelli described for his patron the many forms that mercenary units can turn into. He recalls in the form of peculiar parables what happened in the history of Greece and its individual cities, drawing attention to the present time. Describing mercenary troops and their treachery, he gives examples not only in his native Florence, but also refers to the experience of the entire Apennine peninsula.According to him, all major cities of the state and duchies have suffered to some extent from the actions of mercenaries. And even the most loyal and eminent of them first of all looked for valor for themselves, and tried to get new privileges in the form of loyalty to lands or even a title. Florence was lucky with her mercenaries, or their goals temporarily coincided with the goals of the city-state.Separately, he singles out a completely unusual moment, like the formation of a condottiere a duke due to a successful marriage and military prowess on the example of Francesco Sforza, who gave rise to the Sfoza dynasty, which ruled Milan for many generations, but warns his master about the changeability of fortune.However, the point of view of the Italian humanist reflected the inconsistency of the prevailing realities, with all the dangers of mercenaryism, the Italian states could no longer do without it.

The presence of employees of private military and security companies in the grey zones and in military operations is a reality. The legal regulation of the status of these companies, the types and essence of the services provided, as well as the legal mechanism for prosecuting employees seriously infringing the provisions of international humanitarian law is an imperative need for the international regulatory process and a challenge for the science of international humanitarian law. This article will continue to discuss the correlation between the duties, obligations of non-state actors and their legal status in accordance with the provisions of international humanitarian law, to analyze documents and legal instruments that seek to regulate the legal capacity of military and private security companies, to investigate aspect related to the implementation of the rules described in the documents proposed by the international community.

In the article questions of international legal judgment of mercenarism, measures of fight against this crime, implementation of norms of the international criminal law in the criminal legislation are considered.