paramilitary

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces.^[1]

The term paramilitary is subjective, depending on what is considered similar to a military force, and what status a force is considered to have. The nature of paramilitary forces therefore varies greatly according to the speaker and the context.

For instance, in Northern Ireland, paramilitary refers to any illegal armed group with a political purpose, but in Colombia, paramilitary refers only to illegal armed right-wing groups (such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) that are not in direct opposition to the government, while illegal armed left-wing groups rebelling against the government (such as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are referred to as guerrillas.^[2]

Examples of paramilitaries

Depending on context, paramilitaries can include:

• Irregular military forces: militias, guerrillas, insurgents, and so forth
• The auxiliary forces of a state's military
• Private military companies
• Mercenaries
• Some kinds of police forces, e.g. auxiliary police
• Gendarmeries, e.g. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Gendarmerie royale du Canada), Egyptian Central Security Forces and India's Central Reserve Police Force
• Border guards, e.g. India's Border Security Force
• Security forces of ambiguous military status, e.g. Russia's Internal Troops
• Armed units of US national intelligence services such as the Special Activities Division of the CIA or the Hostage Rescue Team of the FBI
• Youth cadet organizations with no wartime role, e.g. India's National Cadet Corps
• The Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sturmabteilung (SA) of Nazi Germany

See also

Military history portal

• Category:Paramilitary organizations
• Category:Rebel militia groups
• Weimar paramilitary groups
• Paramilitary forces of India
• Fourth-generation warfare

References

External links

Look up paramilitary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Human Rights Watch, Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links
• Paramilitary News
• Global Security
• List of Terrorist Groups