Western armies were designed to address the Soviet threat. Now that this is no more, parameters have changed and threats have become unpredictable (guerrillas, terrorism, ethnic conflict, etc.). Economic realism, resulting above all from the financial criteria of Maastricht, has decimated more French regiments than Soviet tanks ever achieved. Our force employment doctrine has evolved and we have moved from mass armies to professional forces using the services of private companies. Africa, Iraq and even Afghanistan have demonstrated the role of these ‘contractors’, these somewhat specialised service providers, some of whom have created a veritable army with training camps, armoured vehicles, helicopters and ships.

In the Bulletin of the G2S Liaison Group for February 2008, General Bruno Cuche, at that time Chief of Army Staff (CEMAT) explained that ‘The phenomenon of partial “privatisation” of warfare cannot be ignored, as it impacts directly or indirectly on the conduct of operations’; he also wondered if one should ‘stand back from an unavoidable phenomenon or support it to circumvent its shortcomings and turn it to our advantage on operations’.

Between Mercenaries and PMCs

There is not one definition of a mercenary, but many. Some say that he is ‘an individual who enrols voluntarily in the armed forces of a belligerent state of which he is not a citizen with a view to personal gain, especially financial’.⁽¹⁾ Others see him as ‘a soldier wishing to sell his skills to the highest bidder, for whom the cause is of little importance’.⁽²⁾