Paramilitary

Not to be confused with Paratrooper or Private army.

For the 1993 supplement for the role-playing game Paranoia, see Paramilitary (Paranoia).

Legion of Frontiersmen, Edmonton Command, 1915 – a nationalist paramilitary group not officially affiliated with the Canadian Army

A paramilitary is a force or unit that functions and is organized in a manner analogous to a military force, but does not have professional or legitimate status. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.

Overview

Paramilitaries may use combat-capable kit/equipment (such as internal security/SWAT vehicles), or even actual military equipment (such as armored personnel carriers; usually military surplus resources) 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

A group of the "Forest Brothers" in central Estonia meeting with a German unit in 1941

The Steel Shirts copying the Nazi salute during its rally in Syria

Depending on the definition adopted, "paramilitaries" may include:

Military organizations

• Private military contractors and mercenaries
• Irregular military forces, such as militias, partisans, resistance movements, freedom fighters, rebel groups, liberation armies, guerrilla 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, Chinese People's Armed Police, 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

• Lithuanian Riflemen's Union
• Chinese Militia
• SSB

Political

• Armed, semi-militarized wings of political parties and similar political organizations.

Examples of paramilitary units

For a more comprehensive list, see List of paramilitary organizations and List of defunct paramilitary organizations.

See also

• Category:Rebel militia groups
• Militia
• International Association of Gendarmeries and Police Forces with Military Status
• List of Serbian paramilitary formations
• Militarization of police
• Police tactical unit
• Fourth-generation warfare
• Violent non-state actor
• Military urbanism
• Private army
• Fascist paramilitary
• Guerrilla warfare
• List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel
• List of paramilitary organizations
• Bangladesh Ansar
• Border Security Force

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