Mercenaries and War
Title | Mercenaries and War PDF eBook |
Author | National Defense University Press |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 56 |
Release | 2019-12-18 |
Genre | Mercenary troops |
ISBN | 9781678665234 |
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, and traditional war strategies used against them may backfire.
The Modern Mercenary
Title | The Modern Mercenary PDF eBook |
Author | Sean McFate |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 269 |
Release | 2017-05-10 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0190621087 |
In The Modern Mercenary, Sean McFate lays bare this opaque world, explaining the economic structure of the industry and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. A former U.S. Army paratrooper and private military contractor, McFate provides an unparalleled perspective into the nuts and bolts of the industry, as well as a sobering prognosis for the future of war. While at present, the U.S. government and U.S. firms dominate the market, private military companies are emerging from other countries, and warlords and militias have restyled themselves as private security companies in places like Afghanistan and Somalia. To understand how the proliferation of private forces may influence international relations, McFate looks back to the European Middle Ages, when mercenaries were common and contract warfare the norm. He concludes that international relations in the twenty-first century may have more in common with the twelfth century than the twentieth. This "back to the future" situation, which he calls "neomedievalism," is not necessarily a negative condition, but it will produce a global system that contains rather than solves problems.
Medieval Mercenaries
Title | Medieval Mercenaries PDF eBook |
Author | William Urban |
Publisher | Pen and Sword |
Total Pages | 286 |
Release | 2015-11-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1848328559 |
The Middle Ages were a turbulent and violent time, when the fate of nations was most often decided on the battlefield, and strength of arms was key to acquiring and maintaining power. Feudal oaths and local militias were more often than not incapable of providing the skilled and disciplined warriors necessary to keep the enemy at bay. It was the mercenary who stepped in to fill the ranks. A mercenary was a professional soldier who took employment with no concern for the morals or cause of the paymaster. But within these confines we discover a surprising array of men, from the lowest-born foot soldier to the wealthiest aristocrat the occasional clergyman, even. What united them all was a willingness, and often the desire, to fight for their supper.In this benchmark work, William Urban explores the vital importance of the mercenary to the medieval power-broker, from the Byzantine Varangian Guard to fifteenth-century soldiers of fortune in the Baltic. Through contemporary chronicles and the most up-to-date scholarship, he presents an in-depth portrait of the mercenary across the Middle Ages.
Keenie Meenie
Title | Keenie Meenie PDF eBook |
Author | Phil Miller |
Publisher | Pluto Press (UK) |
Total Pages | 0 |
Release | 2020 |
Genre | Mercenary troops |
ISBN | 9780745340784 |
An explosive account of a secret group of mercenaries based on newly declassified documents.
Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies
Title | Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies PDF eBook |
Author | Alan Axelrod |
Publisher | CQ Press |
Total Pages | 670 |
Release | 2013-12-27 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1483364666 |
Mercenaries have been active in battle from the beginning of military history and, as private armies and military support firms, they are a major component of warfare today. Security, military advice, training, logistics support, policing, technological expertise, intelligence, transportation—all are outsourced to a greater or lesser degree in the U.S. military. However, privatization is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Australia rely on privatization in one form or another. Historically, heads of state, politicians, and other administrators have justified use of mercenaries on the basis of their effectiveness, and cost-savings. These reasons and others continue to serve as rationales for use of private military companies in military strategy. Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies provides a comprehensive survey and guide to mercenary forces, entrepreneurs, and corporations active on the international military scene today, including a concise history of mercenaries and private armies on land, sea, and in the air. Narrative chapters are amply supplemented by sidebars including biographies of major figures, key statistics, historical and current documents, contracts, and legislation on private armies and outsourced military services. Each chapter includes a bibliography of books, journal articles, and web sites, and a general bibliography concludes the entire work.
War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars: The Modern Mercenary in Combat
Title | War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars: The Modern Mercenary in Combat PDF eBook |
Author | Al J. Venter |
Publisher | Lancer Publishers |
Total Pages | 674 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | Mercenary troops |
ISBN | 9788170621744 |
Lincoln's Mercenaries
Title | Lincoln's Mercenaries PDF eBook |
Author | William Marvel |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Total Pages | 0 |
Release | 2018-11-06 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0807169528 |
In Lincoln’s Mercenaries, renowned Civil War historian William Marvel considers whether poor northern men bore the highest burden of military service during the American Civil War. Examining data on median family wealth from the 1860 United States Census, Marvel reveals the economic conditions of the earliest volunteers from each northern state during the seven major recruitment and conscription periods of the war. The results consistently support the conclusion that the majority of these soldiers came from the poorer half of their respective states’ population, especially during the first year of fighting. Marvel further suggests that the largely forgotten economic depression of 1860 and 1861 contributed in part to the disproportionate participation in the war of men from chronically impoverished occupations. During this fiscal downturn, thousands lost their jobs, leaving them susceptible to the modest emoluments of military pay and community support for soldiers’ families. From newspaper accounts and individual contemporary testimony, he concludes that these early recruits—whom historians have generally regarded as the most patriotic of Lincoln’s soldiers—were motivated just as much by money as those who enlisted later for exorbitant bounties, and that those generous bounties were made necessary partly because war production and labor shortages improved economic conditions on the home front. A fascinating, comprehensive study, Lincoln’s Mercenaries illustrates how an array of social and economic factors drove poor northern men to rely on military wages to support themselves and their families during the war.