Paramilitary

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Organization similar to, but not part of, a military

title: "Paramilitary" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["paramilitary", "civil–military-relations", "paramilitary-organizations", "military-terminology", "private-security-industry"] description: "Organization similar to, but not part of, a military" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramilitary" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Organization similar to, but not part of, a military ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Nd-3-105_LoF_Edmonton_1915.jpg" caption="[[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. It has been used by many different political organization especially far-right politics groups and by many different organizations. Paramilitaries have widely been synonymous with violence, political repression, ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity. 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Metsavendade_salk_Kesk-Eestis_kohtumisel_Saksa_väeosaga.jpg" caption="A group of the "[[Forest Brothers]]" in central [[Estonia]] meeting with a German unit in 1941"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/The_Steel_Shirts_copying_the_Nazi_salute_during_its_rally_in_Syria,_1936.jpg" caption="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.
State-parallel armed groups such as the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces

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 U.S. Border Patrol, 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

Political

Armed, semi-militarized wings of political parties and similar political organizations, such as the German Sturmabteilung and Italian Blackshirts.

Examples of paramilitary units

Main article: List of paramilitary organizations, List of defunct paramilitary organizations

Please do not add any more examples.

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References

(June 2011). "Oxford English Dictionary". [[Oxford University Press]].
Doxsee, Catrina. (August 12, 2025). "Examining Extremism: The Militia Movement". Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Dasgputa, Sunil. (April 6, 2003). "Paramilitaries on the March". Brookings.
Böhmelt, Tobias. (February 2018). "Auxiliary Force Structure: Paramilitary Forces and Progovernment Militias". Comparative Political Studies.
Aliyev, Huseyn. (2016). "Strong militias, weak states and armed violence: towards a theory of 'state-parallel' paramilitaries". Security Dialogue.

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