Search

This article seeks to understand the changing nature of mercenarism in postcolonial sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that shifts in social norms and politico-legal discourse have influenced attitudes to mercenaries. Where there was once international censure of their use, there is now a growing acceptance thereof. In the pursuit of cost effectiveness and political expediency, the privatisation of state security functions has given rise to a new phenomenon. Private Military Companies (pmc s) are entrusted to exercise force on behalf of or in partnership with the state and so have been accorded legitimacy. These changes will be examined in the light of Africa’s experience of mercenaries and private military contractors. It does not propose a singular trajectory of mercenarism but allows for contingency. It suggests that close attention should be paid to the historical context in which these varied forms have appeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Mercenary, as a social phenomenon, is a constant companion of the historical development of humanity. There have always been, and still are, individuals, independently or organized in groups, who will offer their services of skills and knowledge of warfare on the world market. On the other hand, in the long series of centuries of human existence, almost everyone who had a sufficient amount of money and had a clearly expressed interest in and goal for such a thing hired individuals skilled in warrior skills and other knowledge and abilities that could be used on the battlefield for the realization of various economic, political, geo-economic, and geo-political goals of their employers. The use of private violence was brought under state control after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, where regular military service is the key guarantor of the cumulative survival of the relevant elements of statehood, i.e. the exercise of sovereign powers. However, this did not abolish the practice of mercenary work, but changed it somewhat and adapted it to the new social circumstances. Through the process of social evolution, mercenary military units are transformed into efficient, highly profitable and modern corporate structures which employ diverse, highly qualified personnel, manage them, and provide a wide range of military and security services to various and numerous state and non-state entities - clients. For modern times, in this sense, the appearance and actions of mercenaries during the decolonization process-conventional mercenary formations, on the one hand, and private military companies as a sort of contemporary quasi-mercenary phenomenon which do not themselves fit into the glossary, on the other-are indicative of the socalled legal qualification of classic mercenaries as they are recognized and explained by the key international documents in the field. The very emergence of private military companies led to a fundamental disruption in the perception of the term mercenary. It is no longer contained by, nor capable of being a strictly individual phenomenon. Also, over time, private individuals, multinational corporations, and even internationa organizations are becoming more and more prevalent among the interested parties seeking to hire mercenary services, in addition to the state and its agents. International documents pertinent to the mercenary issue are Supplementary Protocol I (from 1977) and two conventions specifically created for this issue-the UN Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries (from 1989) and the Convention of the Organization of African Unity for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa (from 1977). In these documents, mercenaries are "stigmatized" as the only entity of interest in international humanitarian law devoid of any legal protection within that particular subsystem of international law. However, the definition of a mercenary is quite restrictive. The provisions concerning the conditions and circumstances under which a person can be treated, that is, declared a mercenary, are difficult to apply in practice. Due to the restrictive nature of their "defining" aspects, the existing rules on mercenaries are difficult to apply in practice and make it difficult to achieve the ultimate goal of those international documents, which is to suppress and prosecute perpetrators of incriminated mercenary behavior and mercenary practices. On the other hand, the mercenary category is not very helpful when it comes to the qualification and legal positioning of private military companies as international corporate enterprises, which include various military potentials, military or paramilitary assets, personal skills and specialties of the employed personnel, and whose main goal is to make a profit, i.e. profit. Although they are often defined as mercenaries in public discourse, private military companies deviate from representations shaped by reminiscences from the distant and recent past, primarily military mercenaries from the Middle Ages, times of religious wars, colonial conquests, and participants in post-colonial wars of the 20th century, which were particularly infamous for violating international humanitarian law and human rights during the suppression of national liberation movements on African and Asian soil. The key difference between conventional mercenaries and private military companies, apart from the fact that mercenaries are criminalized by the provisions of international humanitarian law, is the existence of a corporate element in the provision of military services. This security sector is still not precisely defined and legally shaped, but it is undoubtedly influenced by the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and other subsets of the international law system that would be directly or indirectly involved in the activities of these organizations or their employees in such delicate and important areas of international life as security and the use of force in international relations are.

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland imposes on a citizen of the Republic of Poland the obligation to defend the Homeland (Article 85(1) of the Act of March 11, 2022 – Homeland Defense Act; Article 3(1) of the Act also stipulates that Polish citizens capable of performing this duty due to age and health are subject to the obligation to defend the state). Violation of this obligation may lead to the realization of criteria defining criminal acts specified in Chapter XVIII of the Act of June 6, 1997 – Polish Penal Code. The subject of the analysis regards crimes under Article 141 §1 and 2 of the Polish Penal Code. The fundamental problem is the issue of the defense capacity of the Republic of Poland, which may be threatened by the participation of Polish citizens in foreign troops and the destabilization of the international community by the actions of mercenary forces. The issue of service in a foreign army or the activities of mercenaries, in the perspective of numerous armed conflicts and the tense situation in regions with high political instability, becomes a very relevant issue, especially for those who take part in activities in this area due to their professional experience (professional soldiers, officers of special services). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are different in their way of being. Some differ according to their origin, race, spoken language, nationality, and other criteria, and others differ according to their ambitions, that is, according to their wishes and visions of the future. Some wishes or visions of the future can be obtained in a short way, but others are more difficult to obtain. Thus, in order to achieve their visions and goals, some people resort to military attacks, which turn into a battlefield. These struggles are carried out in serious violation of all the values of human society. A regrettable part of these fights is the participation of mercenaries in these illegal activities. Therefore, in the present scientific approach, we propose to analyze the participation role of mercenaries on the battlefield.

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.

The activity of mercenaries is an illegal act that most states of the world have known with regret. In recent times, military clashes on the continent of Africa have not been an exception in the sense of not knowing what they represent and how mercenaries are involved in the interests of other states. Therefore, the basic content of the ensuing approach is largely focused on the analysis of the role of the “mercenary” military in Mali as a factor generating conflict in the international arena, and the direct threat to regional security.

Copyright of Artuklu Human & Social Science Journal is the property of Artuklu Human & Social Science Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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.

Copyright of Internal Security is the property of Police Academy in Szczytno and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

At this stage, military conflicts are no longer defined as covert actions. These have begun to spread around the world. Sometimes the main political actors, in order to get some advantages and interests -- resort directly to armed attacks against opponents. Internationally analyzed practice shows that third parties are often involved in such armed attacks, ie those who are not nationals of any of the states involved in armed conflict. Such persons, in international law, are called mercenaries. The activity of mercenaries is ruthless. Mercenaries are people who strike directly or indirectly with firearms, sometimes without regard to the rules of international law, the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens. Most often, armed attacks involving mercenaries are particularly dangerous, directly affecting the lives and health of citizens. As a result of the attacks, the mercenaries leave behind only chaos and massive destruction. These destructions are diverse: architectural, patrimonial, damages to individuals, destruction of roads, restriction of access roads, and others. Thus, we aim to analyze in detail and multispectively this topic, in particular, how the armed attacks of mercenaries negatively harm the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Annals of the "Stefan cel Mare" Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova / Revista Stiintifica a Academiei Stefan cel Mare is the property of Stefan cel Mare University, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova / Ministerul Afe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ancient city of Myndos, located in the west of Bodrum Peninsula and within the borders of Gümüşlük, has two sheltered natural harbors that were used extensively in the ancient times. In the necropolis, which was used between 4th century BC to 4th century AD, skeletons of 89 individuals were found among 96 graves found during the excavations carried out by the Bodrum Museum. Anthropological examinations identified 73 adults and 16 sub-adults and the most common age of death was 35-50. Beside the determination of sex and age of death, the heights, oral health, pathologies and variations were presented as well. An artificial cranial deformation was identified on an individual, whereas a double rooted mandibular canine was observed on another individual. In one grave, weapons including a bent sword were identified and it is thought that the grave belongs to a warrior, possibly a European mercenary. This study is the first anthropological examination on the skeletal materials from Myndos, which reveals demographic data, and therefore yields important results. It is expected that more information about Myndos humans would be obtained in future excavations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Copyright of Studia Historica Gedanensia is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the 2015 intervention of Specialized Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP International Ltd), a South African private military company (PMC), against Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist group in Nigeria. The origins of PMCs are highlighted before an in-depth analysis of the mercenary intervention against Boko Haram is performed, with an eye on previous major PMC interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, the paper emphasises the unprecedented use of PMCs against Islamic extremist groups but on the other reveals that PMC interventions have not changed much. Finally, the article assesses STTEP's intervention in light of the current debate on private security involving those who advocate its use and regulation and those who question the legitimacy of PMCs as a tool of conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Araucaria is the property of Araucaria-Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofia, Politica y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Scientific Annals of the "Stefan cel Mare" Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova / Revista Stiintifica a Academiei Stefan cel Mare is the property of Stefan cel Mare University, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova / Ministerul Afe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, which was adopted in 1994 and entered into force in 1995, was the country's first post-Soviet Criminal Code. In 2018, the President of Uzbekistan called for adoption of a revised edition of the Criminal Code whose provisions should correspond more closely to international law, and would be more appropriately suited to modern realities. The article offers an overview of the draft Chapter on crimes against the peace and security of mankind, as proposed by the author in his capacity as a member of the Working Group for revision of the Criminal Code. It draws upon the best practices of a number of States, and offers a concise article-by-article commentary on the draft Chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have seen the term 'foreign fighter' enter our everyday vocabulary. The insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Syrian Civil War and the rise and fall of the Islamic State group have sparked public interest in the phenomenon of people choosing to leave their own countries and fight in a foreign conflict. Foreign fighters, their origins, motives, activities and potential danger to their home countries have become subjects of debate, attracting contributions from politicians, military personnel, the media, security analysts, political scientists and legal scholars, but to a much lesser extent from historians. The 10 articles of this special issue showcase new historical research on foreign military labour, including an overview of the early modern period and numerous case studies which cover the last 165 years and stretch over five continents. The aim is to better understand the experiences and challenges faced by both the foreigners and the host country, particularly its armed forces, and to highlight the significance of these trends to the contemporary debate on foreign fighters. Designed after a conference held in June 2018 at the Centre for History at Sciences Po, Paris, the issue is inspired by a number of key questions. What motivated individuals to join a foreign conflict or army? How were they treated and perceived by their hosts, and, when taken prisoner, by the enemy? How complete was their integration in the host's combat formations? How did foreigners perform in battle? What happened to them after the war ended? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to put the introduction of conscription in a new perspective by examining its effects on the careers and backgrounds of professional soldiers. It specifically considers the Dutch-speaking part of the principality of Liège in 1756–1815, and the service records of more than 2,000 men from this area. It argues that soldiers did become more representative for society at large, but this came at the cost of lowering the prestige attached to military service. Conscription effectively undermined the position of professional soldiers, without giving them proper compensation in terms of promotion or financial rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the original community, people have changed what they possess for what they lack. Since the supply of services emerged, the 'capability' as a commodity has become competitive on the market. The rich and powerful paid the capability, that is they have used other people's services for any purpose. Warfare capabilities have found their organized and paid implementation among the first services. In the ancient times, leaders increased their military power by mercenaries. At the beginning, independent mercenaries were hired, and later the whole groups of such individuals, which quickly grew into organized mercenary military units. Nowadays they have become modern, efficient and highly profitable companies by the process of social evolution of such unit or association. According to statistics, about 70% of the human population lives in a conflict environment, and about 526,000 people die annually due to armed violence. The increase in insecurity, the need for protection of goods, mistrust in state institutions, the growth of urbanization and the fear of crime and terror further boost the development of the activity of private military and security companies. However, if we analyze the method of their engagement, the consequences and impact on the environment in which they are engaged, it can be concluded that there is a lot of space for the improvement of the legislative norms that regulate their activities.

The article considers the importance of military service in social advancement, here understood as filling the role of “prince” in feudal law and thus participating in the government of an estate, in the transition from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance or Early Modern Age. In the context of a city burgher or a petty noble or knight advancing into a government role, did honour require that the individual have experience in fighting – in war, military organisation and leadership? How did mercenaries figure? What role, if any, did Fechtmeister, Fechtbücher, Fechtschulen or Kriegsbücher play?

Proficiency elements of criminal activity of mercenaries are inextricably linked to the comparative study regarding various criminal legislation, especially those which have common elements with national criminal law. Given the historical context of criminal law common development of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in this article we deal with a comparative analysis aimed at legislation which concerns the offense of mercenary activity. Such an objective is natural, since comparative criminal law is an area of science of criminal law, which is intended to study rules and legal institutions belonging to different national systems in order to know the meaning and content, and the differences between these rules and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War, the Truman doctrine guided America towards extensive involvement throughout Latin America. Today, American private security companies recruit heavily from this region, drawing some of the same men who the CIA had covertly trained in the 1970s–1980s to fight in the modern manifestation of other Cold War conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, both American and foreign proxy conflicts continue to expand while relying heavily on Latin American mercenaries, raising important questions on the status of Latin American fighters in the world and their influence on the character of modern warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History Studies (13094688) is the property of History Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

El objetivo de este estudio es analizar hasta qué punto el proceso de militarización en Colombia, que se viene dando en la última década como parte de la llamada política de seguridad, ha incidido en la agudización de la violencia, el desplazamiento forzado y la violación de los derechos humanos, justificado en la derrota a la insurgencia mediante la confrontación militar. El aumento en el pie de fuerza no ha dado lugar a mayor seguridad ni al fin del conflicto armado; por el contrario, ha generado pérdida de libertades civiles y políticas. En el artículo se mencionan las principales características desarrolladas durante la vigencia de esta política.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the reasons why teacher candidates attending the faculties of education have preferred the teaching profession and the explanatory relations between those reasons. To this end, 801 students who are attending the elementary school teaching departments of 6 state universities were included in the research. Mercenary, altruistic, intrinsic, and extrinsic reasons that are effective with preferring the teaching profession are the latent variables of the research. The model developed to verify the relationships between those variables was tested. According to the findings, the intrinsic and altruistic latent variables have a highly positive relationship. The extrinsic variable has a negatively significant relationship with the intrinsic and altruistic variables, while a positively significant relationship with the mercenary variable. The mercenary latent variable has a positively significant relationship with all other variables.

The chronicle of an unknown author from the eighteenth century deals with the Swiss-French military and political relations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The chronicle was written on paper in French, in Humanist typeface, on eighteen pages. The author is not restricted to a chronological overview of the Swiss foreign military service and the Swiss-French alliance in this manuscript, but had gone into assessing the causes and consequences that have arisen in connection with this historical issue. His assessments and conclusions, though burdened with the contemporary understanding, are a step further in the interpretation of a Swiss mercenary and many facts with which this phenomenon is asserted are also supported by the modern historiography.