The world order has shifted. States who used to symbolize the holders of world order are now the spoils of war. Inter-state conflicts are nearly extinct since the last World War and are instead being replaced by unconventional wars, similarly expanding in cyberspace [1]. Nation-states are retreating everywhere and being replaced by a new class of power; from multi-national corporations and super-warlords to billionaires. The global 1% are more powerful than most nation-states. The top 100 economies include 31 countries and 69 corporations. 62 individuals possess more wealth than the poorest half of the planet [2].Soon, states will no longer be the prime actors in wars; they will become the booty.Free market forces are no longer free and the manipulation of demand and supply are heightening inequalities and rendering the use of force a necessary tool for social control. Mercenaries, also called irregular fighters, are now privately recruited to fight in armed conflicts. Commodifying war, mercenaries have as their only motivation in the conflict dynamics, monetary gains.The United States legalized their usage under the term Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC). They are fighting wars in Syria, Yemen and Nigeria. PMSCs are used by countries for a number of different reasons: to protect illegal economies, such as in the Central African Republic (CAR) and for the expropriation of land, as in Crimea. The use of mercenaries permits States to plausibly deny they has any direct interventions. mercenaries can be very lethal. Professionally trained, as in the case of former service members selling their services to armed groups or authoritarian regimes, they increase the capacity of proxies. They operate under the law and can engage in human rights violations with impunity. This allows wars to be fought in the shadows with the aggressor able to claim victory before the victim knows what hit them. The secret to winning today is knowing that victory is fungible: political victories can translate into military ones and vice versa. There is nevertheless still a high political cost to violating international humanitarian law, even for armed groups. When military strategy meets market strategy and money can buy firepower, the super-rich can become Superpowers. The booming trend is to hire an army, which will mean wars without states. The commercialization of mercenaries is blurring the line between war and peace, as the use of mercenaries is becoming a peace-time strategy. War and peace then coexist, and conflicts smolder without resolution leaving cunning adversaries to exploit the space between war and peace for their own victory. The law of war then is no longer able to work, because irrespective of the label, human rights violations are the same. International law is limited because who will arrest them? You may pursue their clients but what is the likelihood of going against a States or ExxonMobil. Laws often do not have extra-territorial jurisdiction. At times, the law even defends such practices even licensing regimes who want to export their defense services, as in the case of Blackwater training Sudanese militia. Entering into a dialogue with mercenaries also proves useless since their interests are not geo-strategic but economic. One is better off engaging the sponsoring State, however, it is hard to connect with the client when they deny PMSC's existence and use. When PMSC are part of a clear chain of command, the control, its structure and its culture may make them easier to engage.Market mechanisms shape market forces, so freezing the assets of mercenaries provides a tool that hits their interests. Sadly, this only addreses the symptoms of a broader issue of worldview. The problem is one of values. The unprecedented extraction of resources brought about by the industrial revolution, amplified by technological advances, and embeded in market forces with no concempt of "enoughness," are driving the escaliation of force to satifsfy personnal gains and the accumulate more wealth. The measure of any weapon's value is its utility, therefore only a shift in values will make the use of mercenaries obsolete. ----- [1] Cyber-mercenaries are also known as "Hackback" companies.[2] Sean McFate, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of "The New Rules of War."
