Paramilitary Explained
A paramilitary is a military that is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definition, not a military, it is usually equivalent to a light infantry or special forces in terms of strength, firepower, and organizational structure.[2] Paramilitaries use combat-capable kit/equipment (such as internal security/SWAT vehicles), or even actual military equipment[3] (such as long guns and armored personnel carriers; usually military surplus resources), skills (such as battlefield medicine and bomb disposal), and tactics (such as urban warfare and close-quarters combat) that are compatible with their purpose, often combining them with skills from other relevant fields such as law enforcement, coast guard, or search and rescue. A paramilitary may fall under the command of a military, train alongside them, or have permission to use their resources, despite not actually being part of them.
Legality
Under the law of war, a state may incorporate a paramilitary organization or armed agency (such as a law enforcement agency or a private volunteer militia) into its combatant armed forces. Some countries' constitutions prohibit paramilitary organizations outside government use.
Types
Depending on the definition adopted, "paramilitaries" may include:
Military organizations
- The auxiliary forces of a state's military or government, military reserve forces, such as national guard, presidential guard, republican guard, state defense force, home guard, civil guard, imperial guard, and royal guard forces
- Private military contractors and mercenaries
- Irregular military forces, such as militias, partisans, resistance movements, freedom fighters, rebel groups, liberation armies, guerilla armies, militants, insurgents, and terrorist groups.
Law enforcement
- Semi-militarized law enforcement units within civilian police, such as police tactical units, SWAT, Emergency Service Units, and incident response teams
- Gendarmeries, such as the French National Gendarmerie, Dutch Royal Marechaussee, Egyptian Central Security Forces, European EUROGENDFOR, Turkic TAKM, and Chilean Carabineros de Chile
- Border guards, such as the Australian Border Force, Indian Border Security Force, Bangladeshi Border Guard Bangladesh, and Turkish village guards
- Security forces of ambiguous military status, such as internal troops, railroad guard corps, and railway troops
- Branches of government agencies such as intelligence agencies tasked with law enforcement, tactical support, or security operations, such as the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Center and Global Response Staff, or the U.S. Department of Energy's Federal Protective Forces
Civil defense
Political
- Armed, semi-militarized wings of political parties and similar political organizations.
Examples of paramilitary units
See main article: List of paramilitary organizations and List of defunct paramilitary organizations.
See also
Further reading
- Golkar, Saeid. (2012) Paramilitarization of the Economy: the Case of Iran's Basij Militia, Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 38, No. 4
- Golkar, Saeid. (2012). Organization of the Oppressed or Organization for Oppressing: Analysing the Role of the Basij Militia of Iran. Politics, Religion & Ideology, Dec., 37–41. doi:10.1080/21567689.2012.725661
- Book: Üngör . Uğur Ümit . Uğur Ümit Üngör . Paramilitarism: Mass Violence in the Shadow of the State . 2020 . . 978-0-19-882524-1 . en.
Notes and References
- Book: paramilitary . Oxford English Dictionary . . 3rd . online edition; original published in June 2005 . June 2011 . http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=paramilitary . 2011-09-13 . Designating, of, or relating to a force or unit whose function and organization are analogous or ancillary to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having professional or legitimate status. . Oxford English Dictionary.
- Web site: 2023-04-15 . Wider conflict feared as Sudan's army and rival paramilitary force clash in capital . 2023-07-28 . PBS NewsHour . en-us.
- Böhmelt . Tobias . Clayton . Govinda . February 2018 . Auxiliary Force Structure: Paramilitary Forces and Progovernment Militias . Comparative Political Studies . en . 51 . 2 . 197–237 . 10.1177/0010414017699204 . 0010-4140. 10654/38817 . free .
