Mercenarism Reborn: Drone Operators, Coders, and the Post-Ukraine Market for Force

Mercenarism Reborn: Drone Operators, Coders, and the Post-Ukraine Market for Force (Modern War Institute) argues that Ukraine has produced a large pool of battle-tested technical specialists who can carry drone, data, and software skills into the global market for force. Raphael Parens and Christopher M. Faulkner describe Ukraine as “the world’s most intense proving ground for modern warfare” and warn that these capabilities “will not remain confined to Ukrainian battlefields.”

They write that the war has produced “a surplus of specialized military expertise” and that “the market for their services is already expanding.” The authors trace demand signals across drones, information operations, and long-range effects, and they describe a security environment that already offers “clear pathways to hiring foreign military labor.”

Epochal Change (Shifts) in Western Civilization Model (1989): institutionalized soldiers and recurring revolutions in military affairs set conditions for new mercenary forms, including “DEW-Using Terrorists/Mercenaries.”