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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 dozens of Russian mercenaries and on being seized and interrogated for two days in Mali. John argues that the Wagner Group’s legacy is drawing Russia into Africa and transforming it into a major security player on a strategic continent.

“I do think that if and when we do see a ceasefire in Ukraine, the pool of recruitment for PMCs globally is going to jump incredibly… With the Russians, but I’m sure we’ll see a Ukrainian version of it as well.”

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.

Get in touch at: gunsforhirepodcast@gmail.com.

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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 international laws it is breaching. He describes the cruelties and dangers inhering in this new aid system and outlines how individuals, including PMC employees, may be held legally accountable for their participation in the GHF and their association with the IDF’s wider war crimes.

"This is not an aid operation. It is an extension of the unlawful Israeli occupation and its plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza."

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.

Get in touch at: gunsforhirepodcast@gmail.com.

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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 vast mineral wealth, and a recently thwarted coup involving three US nationals.

The Guns for Hire podcast is written, produced and hosted by Dr Alia Brahimi.