This Gun's for Hire

UNTIL RECENTLY, THE WORD MERCENARY conjured up dim pictures of camouflage-clad white men fighting for nefarious purposes in Africa's wars of decolonization, and seemed about to be consigned to the status of a historical curiosity. The arrival of pivate military companies (PMCs) onto the international stage in the early 1990s(1) suddenly made the question of what a was--and whether or not the world ought to be concerned--important once more. And in recent times, the debate has heated up a notch further; there have been suggestions in the media that perhaps PMCs would have been useful in bringing Liberia's civil war to an end,(2) or that they might be considered as UN peacekeepers.(3) Recently, attention has also been paid to the privatization of military matters in Iraq.(4)With private military companies bringing a new shine to the faded allure of the topic, it has become increasingly important to have a clear and useful definition of a Before we can decide if PMCs are mercenary, we have to understand what means; and before we can condemn mercenaries, we must understand what sets them apart from soldiers and fighters. A good definition of the term mercenary allows a clear understanding of the moral issues at stake; it reveals the importance of definitions for policy; and it sheds light on whether or not private military companies ought to be considered mercenary. A proper definition also encompasses the many different forms fighters have taken through history, and places the modern in context. Existing definitions are imprecise and are unable to isolate the factor that makes mercenaries different from regular soldiers or other fighters.Why is a mercenary mercenary? And why should we care? Answering these questions requires three steps. The first section of this article examines conventional definitions and some of their shortcomings. The second advances the main argument: mercenaries are best understood as lacking group motivation and authoritative control. In the third section, non-state violence in the international system is examined as part of a spectrum fluctuating between varying degrees of control and group motivation. Having placed mercenaries and other forms of non-state force on this spectrum, we can then begin to establish what a is, and whether or not private military companies can be considered to be The article concludes by discussing the implications of defining mercenaries in this manner.CONVENTIONAL DEFINITIONSMost critics argue that the definition of a has two components. First, mercenaries are foreign, having no national association with any of the parties to the conflict in which they fight. Second, a mercenary's dominant motive is financial gain.(5) This section examines the foreign and financial components of the definition in turn, and discusses the problems that each poses.Foreign componentOne problem with using foreign status to define a is that it is historically inaccurate. The foreign nature of mercenaries is only remarkable as a defining feature in a world where it is extremely unusual for a soldier to be foreign. Historically, foreign soldiers were common.(6) Further, the notion of nationality narrows the definition of mercenaries to a time period in which the idea of nationhood makes sense, and thereby excludes many forms of on the scene prior to the 19th century.It might be more correct to define mercenaries as being external to a conflict,(7) rather than foreign. This is an improvement, but it falls into the second trap of relying on foreign status in defining a mercenary. Clearly, there are many foreign fighters who are not mercenary. Volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War,(8) mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan, and soldiers on official secondment to another state,(9) like British soldiers in Oman,(10) are all foreign fighters not normally considered to be mercenary

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• The mercenary moniker

  Open Access•Aaron Ettinger•Security Dialogue•2014

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• The Impact of Mercenaries and Private Military and Security Companies on Civil War Severity between 1946 and 2002

  Ulrich Petersohn•International Interactions•2014

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• Mercenaries

  Sarah V Percy•International Organization•2007

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