Wagner and other private armies: a popular product

The rise and challenge to Putin by the private Army called Wagner has again drawn attention to the way of modern warfare.  Wars are not just a patriotic act or for patriots only. It never was.  Warfare is a tool for conflict and threat management. And soldiering is a skill like any other which has a market.

It has happened to our history too. In 1971, there were various offers made to the Mujibnagar government by private army agents to carry out actions. In fact, BRAC founder Fazle Hasan Abed, who was in London as an activist at that time, got in touch with such a group and also collected funds to do the job. The target was to blow up the Karachi port.

Abed went to meet Tajuddin Ahmed, prime minister of Mujibnagar government, to seek his clearance for the operation. But Tajuddin Ahmed turned it down because the money collected by Abed was more needed to pay the salary of the staff of the Mujibnagar government.  So in war priority is the key.

NAMES FOR THE SAME

Mercenaries, "soldiers of fortune", "hired army" and many such terms are used to describe these people who will fight any side who pays them. They are common now and have been around for long. Soldiers have always found military training a lifetime skill for sale.  For example, in most countries, ex-army persons are always hired for security jobs. Now they can be trained to do this job anytime.

That some are ready to kill for money may sound unusual but it isn't. Hired assassins are common and this is a collective for gain. The Western world used such mercenaries in colonial Africa a lot and the US have too where they have fought including the Middle East.  What the Morgan army in Russia did by trying to topple Putin was they can be big enough to threaten even a large, established government like that of Russia. Media however reports that Putin's regime is no longer as stable as it was before the Ukraine invasion.

WHO ARE THEY?

The Wagner group has served Russia for long and almost single handedly captured the city of Bakhmut after an eight-month battle with Ukrainian forces. Its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a close ally of Putin who founded it in 2014 as an autonomous armed group in Donbas. It was registered as a business company only in January 2023, with its "PMC Wagner Center" headquarters in St Petersburg.

As wars have become more clandestine, numbers of these armies have risen. The demand for armed people willing to fight or do "security" jobs is high making it a lucrative business. Private military and security companies (PMSCs) in modern warfare are common now.

MODERN ORIGINS

Private armies grew popular in the later days of Africa's colonialism when European powers, particularly the UK and France, used them to put down anti-colonial resistance activities. As private armies they were free from any rules and the hiring governments could ask them to do the dirty jobs without taking direct responsibility. They were very active in Congo, Benin, Seychelles and many other countries.

The situation became serious enough to merit UN attention. The UN passed a regulation on "Mercenaries" in 1977 and later readopted in 2001 but basically like many things UN, no one really paid any attention to it.

Media reports say that such private armies /guns for hire have been active in over 1500 operations in most parts of the world in the last decade or so. Almost all were hired by Western powers. Today, private armed companies are hired by both the UN and big NGOs for such activities while working in security risk areas. 

SOME BIG NAMES

Private security companies, also ready to fight, are a growing legitimate business sector. They became known after the US's Iraq war where many were active.  The most known private armed services contractor is "Blackwater" (founded in 1997), which protected US institutions and top officials in Iraq. Since then, it has become a multi-million dollar company with major investors. It has been renamed Acedemi. There are over a 100 such companies doing business with the government of the USA.

In the UK, G4S is one of the largest private military companies which began as a guarding business and has now grown into providing multiple security services.

In terms of staff, Wagner of Russia is extremely big and has over 50,000 members attached. Wagner is now registered as a company but began as a self-styled "patriotic" para-military which fights to protect Russians spread in different parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union. In a way, they were produced by Soviet Russia's policy of having Russians in every part of the confederation but who were left vulnerable after the Soviet Union broke up.

Private armies are here to stay and as the world and its wars grow more complex and insecure these armies will grow in number as long as there is money to be exchanged for such services.

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