Governments can distance themselves from some contentious conflicts by subcontracting military action to mercenaries or to other countries.
The use of mercenaries, or defence contractors, is a type of defence spending which raises different contentious issues:
· A government can deny involvement with a mercenary group, as in the case of Russia's Wagner group activities in Syria and Ukraine (7.3.4.4).
· Mercenaries might not be trained to the same standard as full-time troops and might behave badly with the civilian population of a country being attacked, as with Wagner group atrocities in Africa.
· Their legal accountability may be unclear. An Economist article, Blackwater in hot water, noted that an American private military company had used aggressive tactics and that such companies “are formally immune from Iraqi law yet are rarely disciplined by the Western governments that employ them”.
· The population feels less concern about them than about ‘our boys’.
Overall, defence contractors are less accountable to governance than full-time troops.
Another way of subcontracting military action is to provide economic and technical assistance to another country which is fighting the same enemy. This might be seen as a form of alliance. Again, the force would not be subject to the rules which apply in the country giving the assistance; any bad behaviour by the troops would reflect badly on both their own country and on any other countries which were seen to be allied with them. For example the secret rendition of prisoners in the ‘war against terrorism’, to be tortured in another country, damaged America's reputation (7.2.4.1).
(This is an archive of a page intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. The latest versions are at book contents).