Podcast · Tech & Science

Guns for Hire

by Atlantic Council · English · Tech & Science

The Guns for Hire podcast is a production of the Atlantic Council’s North Africa Initiative. Taking Libya as its starting point, it explores the causes and implications of the growing use of mercenaries in armed conflict. The podcast features guests from many walks of life, from ethicists and histor

New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 49 min
Latest: 22 Sep 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

22 Sep 2026 · 51 min

Strait talk: Yemen, mercenaries and the Iran war

Send Alia a Text Message In this first video episode of the podcast, Alia is joined by Ibrahim Jalal, an expert on Yemen and the Gulf. Ibrahim describes the major escalation in Yemen and explains its timing and connection to Iran's bid to generate a two-strait crisis in advance of US midterm elections. They discuss the Russia and Iran-linked mercenary recruitment networks preying on young men of fighting age: Yemeni bodies may be sourced by the Houthi to fight for Russia in Ukraine in exchang...

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Earlier episodes 28 most recent

S2 · E17 · 19 Aug 2026 · 41 min
Satan’s Chariot: Mercenary trouble in Mali
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by Wassim Nasr, the veteran French journalist for France24 and Senior Fellow at the Soufan Center. Wassim talks us through the spectacular April 25th offensive across Mali by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate that looks set to soon make a play to take over the whole country. They discuss the setbacks of the Wagner Group – now Africa Corps – campaign to roll back the jihadist advance in Mali, as well as the Kremlin’s goals in the Sahel. Wassim offers his views...
S2 · E16 · 26 May 2026 · 39 min
“Shoot everybody”: US contractors in San Diego court
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by Daniel McLaughlin, an international lawyer and Legal Director of the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA), a California-based legal nonprofit working on behalf of victims of torture and other atrocity crimes. Daniel and CJA are leading a civil suit in San Diego against a Delaware-registered PMC for war crimes in Yemen. They represent the Yemeni parliamentarian Anssaf Ali Mayo, who was one of the targets of an alleged hit-squad in Yemen. Daniel...
S2 · E15 · 5 Mar 2026 · 51 min
Fighting mercenaries: A Ukrainian soldier’s perspective
Send Alia a Text Message Alia sits down with Dimko Zhluktenko, a Ukrainian drone pilot and analyst within the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Ukrainian military. They discuss the realities of drone warfare in Ukraine, as well as the ways in which mercenary forces change the nature and tempo of battle. Dimko describes how he and his comrades are combatting Shahed drones, the psychological mechanisms necessary to keep fighting an army which uses waves of expendable manpower, and the need for NAT...
S2 · E14 · 1 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Narco noir: Drugs, gangs and mercenaries in Latin America
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by Dr Vanda Felbab-Brown, a renowned expert on non-state armed groups and organised crime. They begin by discussing the escalation of gang violence in Haiti over the last year, despite the arrival of the American PMC, Vectus Global, which is led by the Blackwater founder Erik Prince. They go on to explore the bunkering of fuel by colectivos in Venezuela, Hizballah’s continuing narcotics operations across Latin America, the IRGC’s role in drug traffickin...
S2 · E13 · 6 Dec 2025 · 1 hr
“Youth as merchandise”: Iraqi mercenaries in Ukraine
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by the Iraqi political analyst Mohammed Salih to discuss the legion of Iraqi men turning up on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine. They explore how poverty and political dysfunction in Iraq have been weaponised by mercenary recruitment networks – and how death in Europe has been packaged as an economic opportunity. They consider the possible complicity of prominent Iran-backed militias in Iraq, or even parts of the Iraqi state itself, and the ways in ...
S2 · E12 · 8 Jul 2025 · 1 hr
Death is our business
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by John Lechner to discuss his new book, Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare. They chat about the Wagner Group’s soft power strategy in Africa including films and beauty pageants, and its corresponding popularity in places like the Central African Republic, its patterns of recruitment, and how its mercenaries are already “bringing the war home” to Russia. John also reflects on his own experiences interviewing do...
S2 · E11 · 4 Jun 2025 · 36 min
"Yes, really": American PMCs (back) in Gaza
Send Alia a Text Message In this emergency episode, Alia is joined by the international human rights lawyer and former senior UN official, Craig Mokhiber. They discuss a new, controversial mechanism for the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza – with American PMCs at the core of the system. Craig offers his assessment of why the Israeli-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was established, its rejection by the UN and the international aid community for weaponising hunger, as well as the int...
S2 · E10 · 28 Feb 2025 · 48 min
"Do not come for adventure here": Mercenaries in DRC
Send Alia a Text Message Host Alia Brahimi is joined on the podcast by the African politics and security expert Ben Shepherd. 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. They also discuss Rwanda’s support for M23, regional jockeying for access to DRC’s vas...
S2 · E9 · 30 Jan 2025 · 46 min
“No, really”: American PMCs in Gaza
Send Alia a Text Message Alia chats with modern warfare expert Dr Andreas Krieg about the sudden deployment of three private military companies to the Netzarim corridor in the Gaza Strip. Andreas examines the risks and opportunities in outsourcing a key task of stabilisation to the market, and of depending on low-profile companies for a high-profile job. He argues that the Israeli Defence Forces have a poor track record when it comes to stabilising any of the territories they have controlled...
S2 · E8 · 23 Dec 2024 · 35 min
A mercenary client collapses
Send Alia a Text Message Alia sits down with acclaimed author and former CIA analyst, David McCloskey, to discuss the spectacular collapse of a major mercenary client in Syria. They discuss why, despite their notorious brutality, Bashar Al-Assad’s forces proved so brittle, and who the winners and losers are from the stunning rebel victory. David also talks us through CIA scenario planning around Syria and what spy services might be doing or thinking in relation to Syria right now. The Guns ...
S2 · E7 · 30 Nov 2024 · 1 hr 2 min
Air force for hire
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by the mercenaries expert Alessandro Arduino, who is also a top China analyst. They discuss recent seismic leaps in UAV technology and how the cost of drone defence is a magnitude greater than drone offense. They explore the way certain aggressive PMCs are marrying drone capabilities with their mercenary offerings, raising the spectre of air forces for hire. Alessandro also talks us through China’s developing thinking around privatised force, with some ...
S2 · E6 · 23 Oct 2024 · 55 min
Sledgehammer: The Wagner cult in Syria
Send Alia a Text Message Host and Nonresident Senior Fellow Alia Brahimi chats with the defence researcher Jack Margolin about his new book on the Wagner Group. They focus on its operations in support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and the central place of Syria within the Wagner subculture. They also discuss the ever-present profit motive for the Wagner Group’s leaders, as well as the ways in which grievances born in Syria festered and fostered resentment for many years, before explodin...
S2 · E5 · 26 Sep 2024 · 1 hr 3 min
"Borrowed servants"? PMCs and sadism at Abu Ghraib
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by the international criminal lawyer Katherine Gallagher to explore her litigation against a prominent PMC for war crimes at Abu Ghraib. Katherine talks us through the sixteen-year legal fight on behalf of former Iraqi detainees, the various defences invoked by CACI Premier Technology Inc., and the decision-making around whether to prosecute corporations or individual contractors. She also discusses her role in the case brought against Caterpillar Inc. ...
S2 · E4 · 27 Jul 2024 · 1 hr
I was a Blackwater mercenary in Iraq
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by former Blackwater contractor Morgan Lerette. In a wide-ranging conversation about Morgan's experiences, they look at Blackwater’s lax vetting procedures, the tense relationship on the ground between private contractors and the US military, the absence of long-term benefits or a support system for former Blackwater employees, and the prevalence of substance abuse and suicides. Morgan likens private military contractors to a single-serve coffee cup, to...
S2 · E3 · 26 Jun 2024 · 1 hr 2 min
Mercenary meatgrinder: The price of Bakhmut
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by the Russian reporter and photojournalist, David Frenkel, to consider the staggering toll of the “Bakhmut meatgrinder”– Russia’s bloodiest battle since the Second World War. They talk through his latest report from independent Russian news platform Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service, “The Price of Bakhmut”, and David’s methodology for determining which prisoners were recruited and from where. David also examines the numbers that were killed, the qu...
S2 · E2 · 29 May 2024 · 47 min
What makes Colombian mercenaries so interesting?
Send Alia a Text Message Host Alia Brahimi speaks with Dr Andrés Macías, a Bogota-based expert on Colombian mercenaries. They begin by discussing the explosive case of 26 Colombian nationals arrested for their part in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse. Andrés goes on to look at the thousands of Colombians who enlist under the banner of the UAE, what’s driving hundreds of Colombians to sign up to fight Russia in Ukraine, and what makes former Colombian soldi...
S2 · E1 · 24 Apr 2024 · 48 min
American hit-squad in Yemen
Send Alia a Text Message In the season two opener of the Guns for Hire podcast, Alia chats with Emmy award-winning BBC investigative journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi about her film exposing American mercenaries in Yemen. One of the few journalists to report from Yemen first-hand, Nawal discusses the Delaware-registered PMC contracted by the UAE to kill “terrorists”, her meetings with two of the Americans involved, and the PMC’s training of Yemeni units – including former al-Qaeda operatives...
S1 · E10 · 9 Jan 2024 · 49 min
Mercenaries and Gaza
Send Alia a Text Message In Episode 10 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by Renad Mansour, an expert on Iraq, Iran and allied groups. As the region convulses from the war in Gaza, they begin by assessing reports that the Wagner Group has been tasked with transferring a Russian air defence system from Syria to Hizballah in Lebanon. They go on to discuss the rivalry between Russia and Iran in the Middle East, what is motivating the non-state actors leading the bid...
S1 · E9 · 28 Nov 2023 · 1 hr 2 min
What's Charlie Sheen got to do with it?
Send Alia a Text Message In episode nine of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi speaks with the Russia analyst Sergey Sukhankin about the 2019 arrest in Libya of the Wagner Group political operative Maksim Shugaley and the Russian propaganda campaign to free him. They discuss Russian political and media operations in Africa, from Libya to Madagascar, and how Russia fundamentally lacks the ideological and financial enticements of the Soviet Union or of China. “This goes back to Sovie...
S1 · E8 · 26 Oct 2023 · 48 min
Prosecuting the Wagner Group
Send Alia a Text Message Lawfare is the use of legal systems for strategic advantage. One of its pioneers, the international human rights lawyer Jason McCue, joins host Alia Brahimi on episode eight of the Guns for Hire podcast. Jason describes how he first began pursuing the IRA through private civil actions in the 1990s and goes on to outline the application of these methods to the Wagner Group. Jason and Alia also discuss whether it’s meaningful to designate mercenary groups as terro...
S1 · E7 · 21 Sep 2023 · 37 min
Tracking mercenaries
Send Alia a Text Message As humans share more of their experiences online for the world to see, the blank zones are shrinking. In episode seven of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by Eliot Higgins, an award-winning journalist and founder of the independent investigative collective, Bellingcat. Eliot, who was personally sued by the late mercenary leader Yevgeny Prighozin for outing him as the oligarch behind the Wagner Group, discusses the types of online open-source tool...
S1 · E6 · 24 Aug 2023 · 48 min
Semtex teddy bear: The mercenary build-up in Libya
Send Alia a Text Message Host Alia Brahimi is joined by the Libyan security expert and Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow Emadeddin Badi. They discuss the surge of African, Syrian and Russian mercenaries in Libya since 2019, the major value-add of Wagner Group contractors in terms of utilising Libya's Soviet-era weapons and mortar and sniping capabilities, and how mercenary recruitment networks are used to smuggle migrants to Europe. The working assumption of the international communi...
S1 · E5 · 6 Jul 2023 · 1 hr 6 min
Mercenary bloodline: The war in Sudan
Send Alia a Text Message In this bumper episode on the war in Sudan, host Alia Brahimi speaks with the former US government expert on Sudan, Cameron Hudson, about the mercenary pedigree of the Rapid Support Forces and its transformation from a ragtag Arab militia into an institutional juggernaut. Cameron argues that this mercenary history has had a determinative impact on the conflict: it has generated a cash windfall which allows the RSF to recruit in numbers to rival the size of the ...
S1 · E4 · 30 Jun 2023 · 41 min
“What just happened?” The Wagner Group mutiny
Send Alia a Text Message Host Alia Brahimi speaks with renowned Russia expert Mark Galeotti about the striking developments which saw mutinous mercenary forces from the Wagner Group take over two Russian cities and march towards Moscow. Mark argues that the plot was not picked up in a timely manner precisely because the Wagner Group is a mercenary force operating outside of the purview of counterintelligence and the units that ordinarily monitor the loyalty of the military. “It’s likely tha...
S1 · E3 · 30 May 2023 · 39 min
What's so bad about mercenaries?
Send Alia a Text Message Alia is joined by the philosopher Professor Tony Coady, who examines the key characteristics of mercenaries, including the motivation for private gain. They discuss the Geneva Conventions definition of mercenaries, the gray area of military contractors in support roles, and whether it’s possible to base a moral or legal judgement on an individual’s intentions. They also consider the main moral objections to mercenaries, with Professor Coady arguing that we should do a...
S1 · E2 · 27 Apr 2023 · 51 min
What Russian mercenaries tell us about Russia
Send Alia a Text Message Host Alia Brahimi talks to the Russian defense analyst Dr Pavel Luzin about what the proliferation of Russian mercenaries abroad tells us about Russia at home. They explore the domestic forces that gave rise to the Kremlin’s co-optation of Russian mercenaries, how they are funded by the Russian federal budget, and the effects mercenaries are already having on Russian society. “Hundreds of thousands of veterans will come back sooner or later to Russia, and it will be...
S1 · E1 · 21 Mar 2023 · 52 min
Defeating the Wagner Group
Send Alia a Text Message In the launch episode of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi speaks with the author and former mercenary Dr Sean McFate about his three-pronged strategy for defeating the Wagner Group. They also discuss internal dynamics within the Kremlin-linked private military company, the dangerously outsized influence of its leader on the war in Ukraine, and Sean’s argument that there’s nothing more unconventional today than a conventional war– and that this is borne out...
S1 · 22 Feb 2023 · 6 min
Promo
Send Alia a Text Message Introducing a new podcast series from the Atlantic Council in Washington DC. Taking Libya as its starting point, the Guns for Hire podcast explores the causes and implications of the growing use of mercenaries in armed conflict. Hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi. The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi. Get in touch at: [email protected]. Subscribe to Alia's (free) Substack, "highly irregular": https://highlyir...

About Guns for Hire

Guns for Hire is a English tech & science podcast from Atlantic Council. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Atlantic Council
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 49 min
Latest episode: 22 Sep 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1673785193

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