Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT
Larry Taulbee, Associate Professor of Political Science Emeritus
“Kein Geld, Kein Schweizer: No Money, No Swiss“
Larry Taulbee, winner of a Heilbrun Fellowship for research on the topic of mercenary forces, tells that that the topic has many different aspects. But as a teaser for today, he asks us to consider the following. The French Foreign Legion has long been considered a mercenary force. Although commanded by officers from the regular French Army, it consists of non-citizen enlistees. The Legion formed the French contribution to Allied forces during the 1991 Gulf War. The question is, during the same war, what truly distinguished the French “mercenaries” from the American all-volunteer Army, which also included a considerable number of non-citizens. He would have us note also that The Economist wryly characterized the Gulf War as a “nice little earner for the United States.” That’s a teaser, for sure.