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'Paramilitary' designates forces whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force, but which are not regarded as having the same status.^[1] The term uses the Greek/Latin prefix ''para-'' ("beside"), also seen in words such as ''paramedic''.
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 illegally armed group, but in Colombia, paramilitary refers specifically to illegally armed groups which are considered right-wing (e.g. AUC), while illegally armed groups considered left-wing, such as FARC, are referred to as guerrillas.
Depending on context, paramilitaries can include:

★ Military forces outside the army, e.g. gendarmeries and forces such as the Indian Paramilitary Forces and Pakistan Paramilitary Forces.

★ Illegal forces which consider themselves military but which governments consider terrorist, e.g. Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force, AUC, guerrillas.

★ Private armies and militias.

★ Militarized preexisting government agencies, such as SWAT teams. The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America'' by Radley Balko of the Cato Institute

★ Youth groups and movements that can be considered 'militarized' to various degrees, the Hitler Youth movement being perhaps the most notorious example. Less nefarious modern examples include miltary cadet movements like the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and the American Civil Air Patrol. Whether various global Boy Scout organizations fill the necessary criteria today or historically is a topic of debate.

Contents

References

See also

External links

References

1. Wiktionary definition

See also

★ Private military company

★ Police

★ Mercenary

★ Military

★ Militia

★ Irregular military

★ Military dictatorship

★ Vlaamse Militanten Orde

★ Weimar paramilitary groups

★ Indian Paramilitary forces

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★

★ Atholl Highlanders

★ SS SA and Blackshirts

★ Internal security

External links

★ Human Rights Watch, Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links

★ Paramilitary News

★ Global Security

★ List of Paramilitary Groups