Content

Podcast

Mar 3, 2025

Mercenaries in DRC: “Do not come for adventure here”

By Alia Brahimi

After 300 Romanian mercenaries were cornered by M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January, Ben reflects on the reasons behind the rebels’ advance, as well as the perennial need for DRC’s government to look to external security providers for help with managing threats.

Africa Arms Control

Podcast

Jan 30, 2025

“No, really”: American PMCs in Gaza

By Alia Brahimi

Host Alia Brahimi chats with modern warfare expert Andreas Krieg about the sudden deployment of three private military companies to the Netzarim corridor in the Gaza Strip.

Conflict Crisis Management

Podcast

Jan 2, 2025

A mercenary client collapses

By Alia Brahimi

Host Alia Brahimi sits down with acclaimed author and former CIA analyst, David McCloskey, to discuss the spectacular collapse of a major mercenary client in Syria.

Conflict Crisis Management

Podcast

Dec 3, 2024

Air force for hire

By Alia Brahimi

Host Alia Brahimi chats with mercenaries expert Alessandro Arduino, a top China analyst.

Arms Control Artificial Intelligence

Podcast

Oct 23, 2024

Sledgehammer: The Wagner cult in Syria

By Alia Brahimi

In Season 2, Episode 6 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi chats with defense researcher Jack Margolin about his new book on the Wagner Group. They focus on its operations in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the country’s central place within the Wagner subculture. They also discuss the ever-present profit motive […]

Conflict Crisis Management

Podcast

Sep 26, 2024

“Borrowed servants”? Private military companies and sadism in Abu Ghraib

By Alia Brahimi

Host and Nonresident Senior Fellow Alia Brahimi is joined by international lawyer Katherine Gallagher to explore her litigation against a prominent PMC for war crimes at Abu Ghraib.

Conflict Crisis Management

Podcast

Jul 30, 2024

‘I was a Blackwater mercenary in Iraq’

By Alia Brahimi

Host Alia Brahimi is joined by former Blackwater contractor Morgan Lerette to reflect on Loretta's experience a private military contractor in Iraq.

Conflict Defense Industry

Podcast

Jun 27, 2024

Mercenary meatgrinder: The price of Bakhmut

By Alia Brahimi

Host and Nonresident Senior Fellow Alia Brahimi is joined by the Russian photographer and journalist, David Frenkel, to consider the staggering toll of the “Bakhmut meatgrinder.”

Conflict Crisis Management

Podcast

May 29, 2024

What makes Colombian mercenaries so interesting?

By Alia Brahimi

Coming up this Thursday, in Season 2, Episode 2 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by Dr. Andrés Macías, a Bogota-based expert on Colombian mercenaries. They begin by looking at the explosive case of 26 Colombians arrested for their part in the 2021 assassination of the Haitian president, as well […]

Colombia Conflict

Podcast

Apr 24, 2024

American Hit Squad in Yemen

By Alia Brahimi

Host and Nonresident Senior Fellow Alia Brahimi speaks with BBC investigative journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi about her film on American mercenaries in Yemen.

Conflict Defense Industry
Load More