The world is a dangerous place.  We no longer have the moral clarity and security of the cold war, or of earlier wars where we knew precisely who our enemy were.  Today, as non state actors battle nations and each other, the asymmetry of conflict has created new opportunities for paid armies, and for mercenaries on all sides.
Just as we outsource call centers and the delivery of packages, today we outsource war.  From the protection of the high seas to making our own national interests more palatable 
But at what cost, and what might be the human and global consequence of unleashing the paid dogs of war.
This is the world that Sean McFate knows well and writes about in The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order.
My conversation with Sean McFate:

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