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What makes people fight for countries other than their own? Nir Arielli offers a wide-ranging history of foreign-war volunteers, from the French Revolution to Syria. Challenging notions of foreign fighters as a security problem, Arielli explores motivations, ideology, gender, international law, military significance, and the memory of war.

Foreign enlistment --- Military service, Voluntary --- Soldiers --- History. --- Psychology.

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A critique of mercenary involvement in post Cold-War African conflicts.

Mercenary troops --- Mercenaries (Soldiers) --- Troops, Mercenary --- Armies --- Non-state actors (International relations) --- Soldiers --- Foreign enlistment --- Private military companies --- Africa --- History

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Sometime in April 1285, five Muslim horsemen crossed from the Islamic kingdom of Granada into the realms of the Christian Crown of Aragon to meet with the king of Aragon, who showered them with gifts, including sumptuous cloth and decorative saddles, for agreeing to enter the Crown's service. They were not the first or only Muslim soldiers to do so. Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Christian kings of Aragon recruited thousands of foreign Muslim soldiers to serve in their armies and as members of their royal courts. Based on extensive research in Arabic, Latin, and Romance sources, The Mercenary Mediterranean explores this little-known and misunderstood history. Far from marking the triumph of toleration, Hussein Fancy argues, the alliance of Christian kings and Muslim soldiers depended on and reproduced ideas of religious difference. Their shared history represents a unique opportunity to reconsider the relation of medieval religion to politics, and to demonstrate how modern assumptions about this relationship have impeded our understanding of both past and present.

Soldiers of fortune --- Foreign enlistment --- Mudéjares --- Muslims --- History --- History. --- Aragon (Spain) --- History, Military --- aragon, muslim, islam, mercenaries, war, violence, religion, sovereignty, granada, christianity, 13th, 14th, arabic, latin, romance, religious difference, politics, history, nonfiction, soldiers of fortune, foreign enlistment, spain, mudejares, north africa, medieval, secularism, crusade, conquest, jihad, interfaith, identity, faith, empire, mediterranean, iberia, jenets.

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In the past two decades, private military contractors in the employ of the United States government have participated in dozens of conflicts throughout the world, from Iraq to Columbia to Liberia to Afghanistan. Indeed, the United States can no longer go to war without contractors, who provide essential security and logistics support to combat and stability operations. Yet we don't know much about the industry's structure, its operations, or where it's heading. Typically led by ex-military men, contractor firms are by their very nature secretive. Even the US government - the entity that actually pays them - knows relatively little. The author lays bare this opaque world, explaining the economic structure of the industry and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. While at present, the US government and US firms dominate the market, private military companies are emerging from other countries, and warlords and militias have restyled themselves as private security companies in places like Afghanistan and Somalia. To understand how the proliferation of private forces may influence international relations, the author looks back to the European Middle Ages, when mercenaries were common and contract warfare the norm. He concludes that international relations in the twenty-first century may have more in common with the twelfth century than the twentieth. This 'back to the future' situation, which he calls 'neomedievalism', is not necessarily a negative condition, but it will produce a global system that contains rather than solves problems.

Firms and enterprises --- Polemology --- Private military companies. --- Mercenary troops. --- Mercenary troops --- Security, International. --- United States --- Military policy. --- Collective security --- International security --- International relations --- Disarmament --- International organization --- Peace --- Mercenaries (Soldiers) --- Troops, Mercenary --- Armies --- Non-state actors (International relations) --- Soldiers --- Foreign enlistment --- Private military companies --- Military companies, Private --- Military contractors, Private --- Military service providers --- PMCs (Private military companies) --- Private military contractors --- Contractors --- Defense contracts --- Private security services

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Mercenaries have always had a poor press. Theirs is one of the world's oldest professions, but the very word has profoundly negative connotations of infidelity and ruthlessness. But were they so different from soldiers? Why, in any case, were they so omnipresent in the warfare of the medieval and early modern period? What kind of men became mercenaries and where did they come from? These are some of the questions which the essays in this volume address. Contributors are: Richard Abels, Bernard Bachrach, David Bachrach, Adrian Bell, Charles Bowlus, David Crouch, Guido Dall'Oro, Kelly Devries, Sven Ekdahl, John Hosler, John Law, Alan Murray, Stephen Morillo, Laura Napran, Eljas Oksanen, Carlos Andrez Gonzalez Paz, Ciaran Og O'Reilly, Muriosa Prendergast, Nicolas Prouteau, John Pryor, Ifor Rowlands, Spencer Smith.

Mercenary troops --- Military art and science --- Military history, Medieval --- History --- Mercenary troops -- Europe -- History -- To 1500 -- Congresses. --- Military art and science -- History -- Medieval, 500-1500 -- Congresses. --- Military history, Medieval -- Congresses. --- Military & Naval Science --- History & Archaeology --- Military Science - General --- History - General --- Law, Politics & Government --- Conferences - Meetings --- Medieval military history --- Fighting --- Military power --- Military science --- Warfare --- Warfare, Primitive --- Naval art and science --- War --- Mercenaries (Soldiers) --- Troops, Mercenary --- Armies --- Non-state actors (International relations) --- Soldiers --- Foreign enlistment --- Private military companies --- Mercenaires --- Histoire militaire --- Europe --- Moyen âge