Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

Q: What does this research mean for the field?

Modern Russian mercenaries represent a new era and evolution in the historical practice of private warfare. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

Punsara Amarasinghe

doi:10.1080/03071847.2026.2723666

September 2, 2026The RUSI Journal

Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

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Key Points

To examine the historical lineage of mercenary forces and evaluate the contemporary resurgence of Russian private military actors in modern conflicts.
Conducted a historical and geopolitical analysis tracing mercenary deployment from antiquity to modern battlefields.
Assessed strategic documentation and conflict patterns involving contemporary private military and security actors.
Identified modern mercenary forces as critical instruments for state-sponsored power projection and geopolitical competition.
Showed that contemporary private warfare provides states with plausible deniability while circumventing traditional military accountability.

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Implication

Historical analysis uncovers the strategic role of Russian mercenaries in modern global conflict, highlighting shifts toward privatized warfare.

Abstract

It is by no means an exaggeration to state that the history of mercenaries is as old as warfare itself. From the Valley of Megiddo, where pharaohs used foreign mercenaries in antiquity, to the dogs...

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Punsara Amarasinghe (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9a85d25d9e33f25c631281 https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2026.2723666

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Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

Key Points

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Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

Key Points

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Implication

Abstract

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