paramilitary units
Unofficial combat groups
Paramilitary units are armed groups organized along military lines but not part of a country's official armed forces.
They may be government-sponsored militias, rebel forces, or private security organizations: Paramilitary units patrolled the border region.
The term often carries sinister connotations—death squads, extrajudicial violence, plausible deniability for state actors.
- border patrolsTeams monitoring national boundaries
- peacekeeping forcesTroops maintaining ceasefires
- clandestine networksConcealed systems of coordination
- black opsUnacknowledged covert activities
- separatist movementsEfforts to split from states
civil war · irregular forces · shadow armies · proxy forces · death squads · ethnic cleansing · vigilantes · chain of command · insurgents · guerrillas · human rights violations · war crimes tribunals · mercenaries
- military forcesarmy, allied forces, soldiers, troops, coalition forces
- militiacitizen soldier, citizen soldiers, state militias, minutemen, citizen army
- Cold War militaryWarsaw Pact, Red Army, border troops, MiG fighters, MiG-21
- Croatian Warterritorial defense, Dalmatia, secession, statehood
- DDR PoliceStasi, border guards, state security, secret police, political police
paramilitary unitsregular army
Nation's permanent military force
standing army · defense forces · conventional forces · national guard · enlisted soldiers
paramilitary unitspeace activists
Those advocating nonviolent resolution
humanitarian organizations · diplomatic corps · NGOs · protest movements
paramilitary, military, militia, militant, militancy, militarism, militarist, militaristic, militarize