The Advent of the “Digital Mercenariesâ€
Kiril Avramov
The topic of use and role of private military contractors in modern warfare periodically gains the intensive focus of public attention and scholarly scrutiny. It happens so, due either to highly publicized lobbying efforts of the proponents of private military and security companies’ (PMSC) wider implementation in long-running conflicts, such as the recent “Prince plan†for Afghanistan, or highly publicized operations of increasingly assertive non-Western PMSC’s, such as the likes of the Russian “Wagnerâ€. The scrutiny focus and intensity are justified and rightfully so, as the expanding role of the private military contractors represents a key feature of the rapidly evolving nature of modern warfare. However, while the public attention tends to captured mainly by the kinetic operations performed by the modern day “condottieriâ€, a new type of modern “soldiers of fortune†emerges center stage. Namely, the ascent of a new breed, one that could be best described as “digital mercenariesâ€.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/advent-digital-mercenaries
