Tag: Mercenaries

Free Download Mercenaries: Scourge of the Developing World by Guy Arnold
English | 1999 | ISBN: 0333733878 | 211 Pages | PDF | 11.0 MB
Mercenaries have been employed as auxiliaries since early times, but in the post-1945 world they have operated, almost exclusively, in weak Third World countries.

Free Download Money for Mayhem: Mercenaries, Private Military Companies, Drones, and the Future of War by Alessandro Arduino
English | October 15th, 2023 | ISBN: 1538170310 | 302 pages | True EPUB | 0.84 MB
Gazes into the crystal ball to forecast what the future of war looks like in a world dominated by private armies.

Free Download Napoleon’s Mercenaries: Foreign Units in the French Army Under the Consulate and Empire, 1799-1814 by Guy C. Dempsey
English | February 1, 2002 | ISBN: 1853674885 | 368 pages | PDF (Converted) | 6.21 Mb
This superb and comprehensive book details the foreign units which formed such an important part of Napoleon’s forces. It examines each non-French unit in turn, giving an overview of the unit’s origins, its organizational and combat history, its uniforms and standards, and details of the unit’s eventual fate. Colorful accounts, taken from contemporary reports and memoirs, emphasize the qualities of the unit and throw light on what life was like for many of the foreign soldiers recruited into the Grande Armee. Napoleon’s foreign troops varied tremendously in quality, from the excellent Vistula Legion and Swiss regiments to the more dubious battalions of foreign deserters and Spanish prisoners of war. Some units fought and flourished throughout the Consulate and Empire, whilst others lasted for just a few months. Covers Polish, German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, and other units in the French Army and presents a combat history and details uniforms for each regiment. Napoleon’s Mercenaries is the best single-volume study of this aspect of Napoleon’s army and a vital reference for every Napoleonic enthusiast.

Free Download Simona Rodan, "Aegean Mercenaries in Light of the Bible: Clash of cultures in the story of David and Goliath"
English | 2015 | ISBN: 1784911062 | PDF | pages: 122 | 3.4 mb
The story of the duel of David and Goliath, the Philistine champion, is narrated in the Bible in several versions. While its symbolic importance in Judaism and later in Christianity gradually came to represent the battle between good and evil, true faith and paganism, attempts were made since ancient times to solve its ambiguities. In modern research, the story arouses many disputes. There is controversy about the degree of realism and fantasy in it and there is also no agreement as to the time it was composed. Some claim that this was close to the time when the event occurred at the beginning of the monarchy period. Others postpone the time of its writing to the end of the Judaean monarchy and even to Second Temple times by pointing out its similarities to Greek literature and the characteristics of Goliath as an Aegean hoplite. The purpose of the study is not only to shed light on the enigmas about the protagonists and the time of the story, but also to understand why the importance of its message did not lessen and in what circumstances the interest in it was prolonged. The study employs a textual analysis (literary and philological) of the story together with its comparison to Greek, Egyptian and Mesopotamian literary sources, historical analysis, and also a comparative analysis with archaeological findings. It examines sources which until now have not been included in research and suggests a new date, place and motive for the compilation of the duel story.

Free Download Digital Influence Mercenaries: Profits and Power Through Information Warfare by James (J.F.) Forest
English | April 15, 2022 | ISBN: 1682477223 | 264 pages | PDF | 2.34 Mb
In today’s online attention economy, supply and demand have created a rapidly growing market for firms and entrepreneurs using the tactics, tools, and strategies of digital influence warfare to gain profit and power. This book focuses on the more malicious types of online activity such as deception, provocation, and a host of other dirty tricks conducted by these "digital influence mercenaries." They can be located anywhere with an Internet connection-Brazil, China, Iran, Macedonia, Russia, Zimbabwe-and the targets of their influence efforts can be whomever and wherever they are paid to attack. They can do this for state governments willing to pay and provide their targeting instructions (usually in support of foreign policy objectives) and may have specific metrics by which they will assess the mercenaries’ performance. Non-state actors (including corporations and political parties) can pay for these kinds of digital influence services as well. And in addition to being paid for services rendered, digital influence mercenaries can also profit simply by manipulating the targeted advertising algorithms used by social media platforms. James J. F. Forest describes in detail the various tools and tactics these mercenaries use to exploit the uncertainties, fears, and biases of their targets including bots, deep-fake images, fake news, provocation, deception and trolling. He also shows how they weaponize conspiracy theories and disinformation to manipulate people’s beliefs and perceptions. Forest also highlights how government agencies and social media platforms are trying to defend against these foreign influence campaigns through such tactics as shutting down offending websites, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels; tagging disinformation with warning labels; identifying and blocking coordinated inauthentic behavior; and suspending social media accounts, often permanently. European and North American governments have launched numerous investigations against these mercenaries, and in some cases have brought criminal charges. Forest concludes with suggestions for how each of us can learn to identify disinformation and other malicious efforts and defend ourselves in the future.