There is a saying in Urdu that “LOG PAISO K LEYE KUCH B KAR SAKTAY HAI” can be translated as people can do anything for money. This proverb can be fit for mercenaries. A lot of people are not aware of mercenaries. What are they? How do they work? And Who hires them? They can be defined as mercenaries, the individuals hired by the authorities to fight for them in conflicts and wars.

They fight for their lords who pay them. Their loyalty is only towards money, and they can flip aside if the opposition offers a good amount of money. However, the masses are ambivalent regarding mercenaries and private military contractors. There is a world difference between these two terms.

The private military is the people who are hired by the governments to collect secret information, provide technical and technological assistance, and bolster transport to move sensitive things from one place to another.

These contractors are legal on the international stage. “Blackwater” is a vivid example of it. On the other hand, mercenaries are already defined in the paragraph above. Something that can be added to the mercenary’s side is that they are considered illegal at international forums.

The imperative question is how these mercenaries work. And why is it so attractive that most of the strong countries hire them to fight for them? To answer these questions, it is important to know how these mercenaries work. They work only for money. They are mostly created by strong countries like Russia, the USA, France, the UK, and many more. These states nurture them so that they can utilize these mercenaries for their vested interest; because mercenaries fight, they capture the area and give it to these countries. They do not create their own government or empire in that area. Therefore, they attract strong states to hire them for their own benefit.

This trend is as old as human conflicts are. Therefore, it can be said that this trend is not new for the masses. The element of mercenary is constant throughout the history. Although these were present in B.Cs(Before Christ) yet Mercenary groups first appeared properly in the 12th century, when they participated in the Anarchy (a conflict of succession between King Stephen and Empress Matilda between 1137 and 1153). In the 1180s, similar groups were integrated into the armies of the King of France under Philip II of France. Similarly, Barbarian mercenaries were integrated into Roman troops to attack other barbarian nations.

The Byzantine Empire had used them as well to fight the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. Likewise, they had been used in World War 1 and World War 2, though they were consented to dismantle mercenaries. So, history speaks about the role of mercenaries in conflicts and wars. Conflicts and wars in which mercenaries have participated cannot be counted. It is because they have participated in countless conflicts and wars.

Some of them have already been discussed in the paragraph mentioned above. However, some more conflicts and wars are following.

The Thirty Years’ war was a prominent war in which almost every country used mercenaries for attack and defense.

Only the Dutch Republic used forty thousand individuals. Likewise, the known personality Raja Ranjith Singh also employed mercenaries from America to fight against the Mughals. Similarly, in today’s scenario, Black Water, Wagner group, G4S, and many more are the mercenary groups hired by powerful countries like the USA, RUSSIA, UK, etc.

It is worth asking if they can military work as a mercenary group. Most of the people think that countries are using its military as mercenary group. The US military is considered one of the largest mercenary groups in the world because they implicitly get money or goods from Europe, Gulf countries, and Southeast Asian nations. Besides, India’s pledge to protect Nepal and Bhutan’s territory is also considered as India is using its army as a mercenary group because it wants to control Nepal and Bhutan.

Moreover, the army of Pakistan is considered a mercenary group as well. It is because it gets funds from the countries and provides services to them. The recent football World Cup in Qatar is an example of it. So it can be deduced that as many things are transformed in the 21st century, so is the concept of mercenary groups.

Mercenaries are one of the grave threats to peace and stability. Powerful countries ostensibly talk about peace and prosperity, but in actuality, they do not want. This is because most strong countries’ economies run via their arms industries. Without realizing this grave threat, they keep nurturing these groups to get the chair of the superpower and run their economy.

To prevent this, the international community needs to take stern steps against those countries that are fostering these groups. Otherwise, third-world countries and other small countries would always be on the brink of war. Therefore, the international community must take grim steps for the curtailment of the incubation of these savage groups.