ABSTRACT
The single most important change in military affairs in recent history is the unprecedented role private contractors have come to play in modern warfare. This has been a trend in the making from the 1990s on. Quite a number of things have changed since then, though, and this is not just about sheer numbers. Equally important is the fact that today the biggest clients of private military services are the world’s richest, most advanced states. So employment of contractors in combat is no longer about “state failure” as it was in the 1990s when African states lacking any sort of internal props or any means of substantial control over their territories hired mercenary forces to fight insurgents.
