Unpacking the Private Military Complex

Cuba

Elena Smirnova

From March 2023, Smirnova used social media - posting under her maiden name Shuvalova - to recruit Cuban and Sri Lankan nationals for the Russian military. The ads offered well-paid…

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    Companies

    1. Gazpromneft Security
    2. PMCs legally don't exist in Ukraine. They're booming anyway
    3. Moroccan Government Used Powerful Israeli Pegasus Spyware, Former Intelligence Officer Says
    4. Co-Founder of Controversial Spyware Firm Had Israeli Diplomatic Passport
    5. Is someone's mercenary another's contractor: American, British, and Russian private security companies in US and UK parliamentary debates
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    Academic

    1. Soldiers of Fortune: A Historical Analysis of American Mercenary Employment
    2. Mercenaries in the eastern Mediterranean from the late Bronze Age to the Iron Age
    3. A Global Brotherhood of Paramilitaries American Conservatives, Anticommunist Internationalism, and Covert Warfare in the Cold War
    4. The Black Eagle of Harlem
    5. Merchants of War: Mercenaries, Economy, and Society in the Late Sixteenth-Century Baltic
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    Russia

    1. Elena Smirnova
    2. Kenya's Official: 289 Kenyans Were Recruited into Russia's Military. 69 Are Dead or Missing. Over 150 Are Still Unaccounted For
    3. Bolivia Held a Wake Without Bodies. The Families of Two Men Recruited for Russia's War Are Still Waiting for Answers
    4. Jordan Confirms Two Citizens Killed After Being Recruited into Russia's Army, Calls on Moscow to Stop
    5. DIU Intercept: "They're from Bangladesh. They've Been Wandering for Three Days." Russian Radio Call Exposes Two Lost Recruits with No Translator
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    Legal

    1. Guns for Hire, States in Ruin: An International Regulatory Framework to Combat the Exploitation of Weak States by Private Military Companies
    2. Mercenary group linked to royal family accused of heinous war crime against California student
    3. US mercenary demands special jail food in India
    4. Regulating Private Warfare: Addressing The Legal Loopholes Of PMSCs
    5. Court to consider protection of military contractors from certain suits
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    Outsourcing/Privatization

    1. South Korea looks to outsource military base security to private firms as man power drops
    2. The Only Way to Disarm Hamas: How Private Security Contractors Can Help Stabilize Gaza
    3. Outsourcing Occupation: US Private Contractors in Gaza
    4. Profit Over Protection: The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Over-Reliance on Private Contractors
    5. From Drones to Data: Private Contractors and Cyber Mercenaries
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    Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire

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