extended essay guide 2022

Gr. 11-12 Extended Essay

What is the extended essay.

• The York School Extended Essay Handbook 2021/2022

IB Extended Essay Guide (updated November 2023)

Student responsibilities, tips for a successful ee journey, extended essay workshops 2022-2023, extended essay workshops 2021-2022, support for the extended essay.

• Reflections
• Choose a Subject
• Choose a Topic
• Draft a Research Question
• Develop Your Search Strategy
• Computer Science
• Visual Arts
• World Studies
• Introduction
• Academic Integrity
• Common Questions
• For Supervisors
• EE Examples

EE Coordinator

MS/SS Librarian

What is the significance of the extended essay.

The extended essay provides:

• practical preparation for undergraduate research
• an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.

Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:

• formulating an appropriate research question
• engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
• communicating ideas
• developing an argument. 

Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.

An extended essay can also be undertaken in world studies , where students carry out an in-depth interdisciplinary study of an issue of contemporary global significance, across two IB diploma disciplines.

How is study of the Extended Essay structured?

Students are supported throughout the process of researching and writing the extended essay, with advice and guidance from a supervisor who is usually a teacher at the school.

Students are required to have three mandatory reflection sessions with their supervisors. The final session, a concluding interview, is also known as  viva voce .

The extended essay and reflection sessions can be a valuable stimulus for discussion in countries where interviews are required prior to acceptance for employment or for a place at university.

How is the Extended Essay assessed?

All extended essays are externally assessed by examiners appointed by the IB. They are marked on a scale from 0 to 34.

The score a student receives relates to a band. The bands are:

A – work of an excellent standard. B – work of a good standard. C –work of a satisfactory standard. D – work of a mediocre standard. E – work of an elementary standard.

Find out how points awarded for the extended essay contribute to a  student’s overall diploma score .

IB Diploma Points Matrix (TOK + EE)

Source: International Baccalaureate. (n.d.).  What is the extended essay?   https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/extended-essay/what-is-the-extended-essay/ 

Regarding the EE in general:

• Observe the extended essay regulations as set by the school and the IB
• Meet all EE deadlines
• Practice Academic Integrity by careful note-taking and proper referencing & citation of information sources used
• Maintain and update the Extended Essay workspace in ManageBac

Regarding subject choice:

• Choose a subject in which you are already enrolled,   and which you thoroughly understand and are comfortable with
• READ the subject-specific requirements for your chosen subject

Regarding your supervisor:

• Initiate regular communication with your supervisor & respond to their communications
• Attend  3 mandatory   reflection sessions with your supervisor

Start EARLY! 

Talk to diploma subject teachers. Ask questions!

Map out a timeline of deadlines, research days, writing days. Allow for unforeseen delays. 

Plan your information sources. Keep track of what you've used through a working bibliography. 

ALWAYS proofread your drafts before submitting them

Get a Toronto Public Library card (free access to their databases & resources)

What strategies can students use to discuss the extended essay in their university application?

• Intro to EE Research Resources Presentation from November 2022 sessions.
• Choosing & Refining a Topic / Identifying Sources Presentation from December 2022 sessions.
• Annotating & Evaluating Sources Presentation from January 2023 sessions.
• Rocking the Research Question Workshop Presentation from April 6, 2022 EE Research Day.
• Identifying & Accessing Sources Workshop Presentation from April 6, 2022 EE Research Day.
• Evaluating Sources Workshop Presentation from April 6, 2022 EE Research Day.
• Structure & Formatting for the EE Workshop Presentation from May 3, 2022 EE Research Day.
• Awesome Editorial Techniques Workshop Presentation from May 3, 2022 EE Research Day.

Librarians can provide important and additional support in some of the fundamental research and information literacy skills. These skills can include:

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IB Extended Essay: Primary Text Research - Class of 2022: Overview

• Contextual Research - Resources for All Topics
• World Religions & Philosophy
• Citations & Passwords
• Contact a Librarian

IB Extended Essay: Primary Text Research

Class of 2022

This guide contains resources for Extended Essays in the following Categories: Dance, Film, Literature,  Language and Literature, Literature and Performance,  Music,  Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, Philosophy, and World Religions .

Essays within these subject areas involve student analysis and interpretation of a work of art or language (the "text") in combination with either a critic's, scholarly perspective or contextual research to support the student analysis .  

Today's Activities - Please click ALL of the tabs

• Learning Targets
• Opening Activity
• Subject Specific Source Lists
• Today's Research Goals
• Collaborative Exit Activity - Padlet

Today's Learning Targets 

Today I will:

• Consider the areas of inquiry as they relate to my primary text(s)
• Identify IB requirements for primary and secondary sources, including specialized types of sources required.

In order to: 

• At least ONE academic, critical journal article in a database.
• Locate a book on my topic in the Robinson Library catalog;
• Locate a college-level scholarly book on my topic from the Academic eBook collection (EBSCO);
• Locate an overview or reference article / definition relevant to my topic;  
• Locate an additional academic, critical article.

I'll know I'm successful when I:

• Share my best sources in the Primary Text Research Padlet; 
• Compile scholarly sources in Google Drive or NoodleTools;
• Find source material that will enable me to hone my research question, develop an argument, and draft the essay. 

Primary Text Research & Analysis: Examples

• Open this document and follow the color marking directions for the poem " A Far Cry from Africa " ( you will be prompted to make a copy ).  What do you need to know? 
• Open the   Areas of Inquiry Doc  ( you will be prompted to make a copy ). 
• A s we discuss each category, consider how these potential legs of research relate to the areas of inquir y in Walcott's p oem. 
• So what? How would any of these areas of inquiry be useful for an extended essay? 

​ Connection to Research Legs - Secondary Sources

• How do the areas of inquiry relate to your primary text(s)?  
• What questions do you need to ask about your own work(s)? 
• Please Note:   These areas of inquiry (the legs of secondary research) will be used most appropriately in the introduction and conclusion of your essay. They offer contextual perspective , necessary to understand your argument about your primary text. Warning! If you focus the entire extended essay on the legs, you are no longer writing a primary text extended essay. 

Subject Specific Primary & Secondary Sources

• Read the " subject-specific source lists " and the " types of sources ".  G uidance for each subject  will appear two times in this document;  be sure to read both sections. 
• What are the  primary sources  for your subject? And the  secondary ? What is the  treatment  of primary and secondary source material in your subject?
• Open  THIS Google Doc ( also available in the EE Google Classroom );  read the  EE Subject Guidance & Scoring Guidance  for your topic.   
• Create some notes for yourself : What did you learn by reading these documents? Where might you begin your research? 
• EE - Primary and Secondary Sources

The Next Steps

Research  - Using the resources in this guide, research and find the following items: 

1. Search for and find at least ONE academic article - either a  critic's perspective OR contextual research - in a database.

2. Complete at least TWO items on this list:

• Locate a book on my topic in the Robinson Library catalog ( you may borrow books using curbside pickup @ RBSS );
• Locate a college-level scholarly book on my topic from the database: Academic eBook collection (EBSCO);

3. Complete at least ONE item on this list:

• Locate the citation for a database article and add it to NoodleTools (or a note sheet in Google);
• Email yourself an article or download one to your Google Drive;
• Try an advanced search in a database (use the “and” function to search for two keywords at once);
• Revise your search strategy; use different keywords in two databases and compare results.

Share - Please complete the Padlet, on the next tab, before the next TOK class meeting .

Exit Activity 

Share your best sources in a Padlet (areas of inquiry); scroll to the right to view all areas of inquiry (of expand the Padlet). After all TOK classes complete this lesson ( Jan. 21 & 22, 2021 ), return to the Padlet to learn from your peers and take note of their findings for future reference. 

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IB Guide: Extended Essay

• EE Examples
• NoodleTools Students
• NoodleTools Teacher
• Using the Library Catalogue
• Bibliothéque nationale de Luxembourg
• IB Official Resources This link opens in a new window

Great Extended Essay Books

Subject Specific Guidance

Subject Specific Pages

Group 1:  studies in language and literature, group 2:  language acquisition, including classical languages, group 3:  individuals and societies, group 4:  the sciences, group 5:  mathematics, group 6:  the arts, additional/other:  interdisciplinary essays, extended essay: what write it, the extended essay provides:.

• practical preparation for undergraduate research
• an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.

Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:

• formulating an appropriate research question
• engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
• communicating ideas
• developing an argument. 

Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.

EE Reflection Process

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Extended Essay Guide: Criteria, Format, Sample EEs

• Criteria, Format, Sample EEs
• Annotated Bibliographies
• DP Research Process
• Databases & Academic Journals
• Evaluate Sources
• Academic Integrity
• MLA Citation Format
• CSE Citation Format (Science & Math)
• Video Tutorials 2024

The Assessment Crtiteria in Detail!

• Criterion A: Focus and method
• Criterion B: Knowledge and understanding
• Criterion C: Critical Thinking
• Criterion D: Presentation
• Criterion E: Engagement
• EE_How to maximize marks for different subjects?

• Criterion C: Critical thinking

Notes from the IB

RE: Research Question and Title of Extended Essay

Please note the statement below from the EE curriculum manager regarding the need to have both a title and a RQ for all subjects. Previous versions of the EE Guide indicated that the title and the RQ should be the same for History, Business Management and Mathematics. This is no longer the case.  All essays, regardless of the subject, need to have both a RQ and a title.

Hi Kathy, 

To answer your question, I am going to quote directly from a response John Royce provided, on this forum, in October in response to a very similar question: (it was a question about using Spanish sources - hence the mention of Spanish)

It is certainly  permissible to use sources which are not in the language of the essay, but translation into the target language is required , one cannot assume that the reader understands the original language.

It is usual to quote the original as well as presenting the translation.  [Do not put quotation marks around your translation, just around the original]

Umberto Eco argues ("in Mouse or rat?") that direct translation may lose meaning, paraphrase or use of different idioms may be required to get the ideas across. Paul Bellos ("Is that a fish in your ear?") makes a similar argument - direct translation may confound meaning... Direct translation may not be ideal - meaning and understanding are preferred - so, not to worry that your student with her good Spanish cannot present a direct translation.

What  must be made clear is that the translations are those of the student;  these are her understandings. Readers can make of that what they will - and if unsure, are presented with the original - they can seek another translation.  A note in the acknowledgements and/or in the introduction to the effect that all translations are those of the writer is ... essential.

In response to the question about the  Bibliography/Works cited, my preference would be to list the source in its original Thai version, but perhaps with the English in brackets, to help the examiner.

Your bibliography will have the entries in Thai characters first in the document. Any in-text citation to Thai sources will be in (Thai characters [English translation]).

Citation in Thai [English translation]

Works Cited Example:

วงษ์ปัญญา, ธนกร [Wongpunya, Thanakorn]. “โรงงานยาสูบรวยแค่ไหน และเอาเงินไปทำอะไรบ้าง.”  [How rich is the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly and where does the money go?] (candidate translation). The Standard, The Standard, 30 Aug. 2018, thestandard.co/thailand-tobacco-monopoly/.

Format of the Extended Essay

Required Formatting

The extended essay should be written in a clear, correct and formal academic style, appropriate to the subject from which the topic is drawn. Given that the extended essay is a formally written research paper, it should strive to maintain a professional, academic look. 

To help achieve this, the following formatting is  required:

• 12-point, readable font (Calibri or Times New Roman);
• double spacing throughout entire Essay;
• page numbering - top right corner;
• no candidate or school name or supervisor name on the title page or page headers.

Submitting the extended essay in the required format will help set the tone of the essay and will aid readability for on-screen assessment by examiners.

Required S tructure

The structure of the essay is very important. It helps students to organize the argument, making the best use of the evidence collected. 

There are six required elements of the final work to be submitted. More details about each element are given in the  “Presentation”  section. Please note that the order in which these elements are presented here is not necessarily the order in which they should be written. 

Six required elements of the extended essay:

• Contents page
• Introduction
• Body of the essay
• References and bibliography -- if MLA "Works Cited" if CSE "References"

1. Required Title Page  

The title page should include  only  the following information: 

• the title of the essay
• the research question
• the subject the essay is registered in (if it is a language essay also state which category it falls into; if a world studies essay also state the theme and the two subjects utilized) 

The upper limit is 4,000 words for all extended essays. 

2. Required Contents Page

A contents page must be provided at the beginning of the extended essay and all pages should be numbered. Please note that an index page is not required and if included will be treated as if it is not present.

3. Required Introduction

The introduction should tell the reader what to expect in the essay. The introduction should make clear to the reader the focus of the essay, the scope of the research, in particular an indication of the sources to be used, and an insight into the line of argument to be taken. 

While students should have a sense of the direction and key focus of their essay, it is sometimes advisable to finalize the introduction once the body of the essay is complete.

4. Required Body of the Essay  (research, analysis, discussion, and evaluation)

The main task is writing the body of the essay, which should be presented in the form of a reasoned argument. The form of this varies with the subject of the essay but as the argument develops it should be clear to the reader what relevant evidence has been discovered, where/how it has been discovered and how it supports the argument. In some subjects, for example, the sciences, sub-headings within the main body of the essay will help the reader to understand the argument (and will also help the student to keep on track). In structuring their extended essay, students must take into consideration the expected conventions of the subject in which their extended essay is registered. 

Once the main body of the essay is complete, it is possible to finalize the introduction (which tells the reader what to expect) and the conclusion (which says what has been achieved, including notes of any limitations and any questions that have not been resolved). 

Any information that is important to the argument  must not  be included in appendices or footnotes/endnotes. The examiner  will not  read notes or appendices, so an essay that is not complete in itself will be compromised across the assessment criteria.

5. Required Conclusion

The conclusion says what has been achieved, including notes of any limitations and any questions that have not been resolved. While students might draw conclusions throughout the essay based on their findings, it is important that there is a final, summative conclusion at the end. This conclusion(s) must relate to the research question posed.

6.  Required References & Bibliography

Students should use their chosen style of academic referencing as soon as they start writing. That way they are less likely to forget to include a citation. It is also easier than trying to add references at a later stage. For more information on this, refer to the guidelines in the IB document  Effective citing and referencing.

Writing the essay takes time but if students have used their Researcher's reflection space and reflection sessions in a meaningful way they should be well prepared to develop their arguments.

Extended Essay - Examples & Exemplars

• Essays from May 2018 with IB marks and commentaries
• Assessed Student Work & Commentary IB-provided. "Student sample extended essays, corresponding marks and comments from senior examiners are available for the following Diploma Programme disciplines. Please note that in light of not having authentic RPPFs to accompany these essays, they are marked against criteria A – D only, for a total of 28 possible marks. Following the first assessment session in 2018, exemplars will be refreshed with authentic sample material." more... less... Biology English Economics History Studies in language and literature Language acquisition Mathematics Psychology Visual arts World studies extended essay (WSEE)
• Excellenet Extended Essays Concordian GoogleDoc
• EngA1_Othello EE Othello 2018 From inThinking.net Click the link to see the score and evaluation.
• Fifty (50) More Excellent Extended Essays DVD by International Baccalaureate Call Number: HS DVD 808.4 ISBN: 9781906345600 Publication Date: 2011 1 DVD-ROM (1:33 min.)

Past CIS Extended Essays

Available in the library behind the desk are file folders of past Extended Essays by Concordian students and IB EE Exemplars. Feel free to browse the papers which must be kept in the library.

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IB Extended Essay: Past Essays

• Research Questions
• Past Essays
• Notes & Outlines
• Works Cited Page
• In-Text Citations
• Assessment Criteria
• Reflections
• Supervisor Info
• Net Valley Library This link opens in a new window

Check these CAREFULLY to be sure your topic fits with IB expectations!

• Language & literature (language A)
• Language acquisition (language B)
• Mathematics
• Visual Arts
• World Studies

Business Management

English a & b ee examples.

• English A EE Example
• English A EE Example 1
• English A EE Example 2
• English A EE Example 3
• English B EE Example
• English B EE Example 1
• English B EE Example 2
• English B EE Example 3
• English B EE Example 4
• English B EE Example 5
• English B EE Example 6

Philosophy EE Examples

• Philosophy Example 1
• Philosophy Example 2
• Philosophy Example 3
• Philosophy Example 4

Economics EE Examples

• Econ Example 1
• Econ Example 2
• Econ Example 3
• Econ Example 4
• Econ Example 5
• Econ Example 6
• Econ Example 7
• Econ Example 8

Review Past Papers

• From the IB:  papers from other students and how they scored
• Renaissance Library Past Essays :  Links to all subject area examples

Music EE Examples

• Music EE Example 1
• Music EE Example 2
• Music EE Example 3
• Music EE Example 4

Psychology EE Examples

• Psych EE Example 1
• Psych EE Example 2
• Psych EE Example 3

Chinese EE Examples

• Chinese EE Example 1
• Chinese EE Example 2
• Chinese EE Example 3
• Chinese A EE Cat 1
• Chinese A EE Cat 2
• Chinese A EE Cat 3
• Chinese B EE Example 1
• Chinese B EE Example 2
• Chinese B Example 3
• Business EE Example 1
• Business EE Example 2
• Business EE Example 3

Visual Arts EE Examples

• Visual Arts EE Example 1
• Visual Arts EE Example 2
• Visual Arts EE Example 3
• Visual Arts EE Example 4

Film EE Examples

• Film Example 1
• Film Example 2

Chemistry EE Examples

• Chemistry EE Example

Biology EE Examples

• Biology EE Example
• Biology EE Example 1
• Biology EE Example 2
• Biology EE Example 3

Physics EE Examples

• Physics EE Example
• Physics EE Example 1
• Physics EE Example 2
• Physics EE Example 3
• Physics EE Example 4
• Physics EE Example 5

Math EE Examples

• Math EE Example 1
• Math EE Example 2
• Math EE Example 3
• Math EE Example 4
• Math EE Example 5
• Math EE Example 6

World Studies EE Examples

• World Studies Example 1
• World Studies Example 2
• World Studies Example 3
• World Studies Example 4
• World Studies Example 5
• World Studies Example 6
• World Studies Example 7
• World Studies Example 8
• World Studies Example 9
• World Studies Example 10
• World Studies Example 11
• World Studies Example 12
• World Studies Example 13
• World Studies Example 14
• World Studies Example 15
• World Studies Example 16
• World Studies Example 17
• World Studies Example 18
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IB CompSci Hub

Extended Essay

Extended Essays in Computer Science are not easy to do. Computer Science is counted as an experimental science by the IB and thus requires you to do some kind of experiment in the realm of computer science and then report your findings.

As so few students attempt a CS EE every year, coming up with a ‘good’ CS EE topic will be half your struggle.

IB guidance on EEs

General IB Extended Essay

Specific IB EE Guidance on Computer Science

Topic guidance for Computer Science

EE mark scheme (new)

EE mark scheme guidance

EE mark scheme guidance (specifically for Computer Science)

RPPF form (must be included in final submission)

Examples of Topics 

Below are some examples of what topics our students have been doing recently (including the grade they received from the IB). Obviously, you cannot take any of these topics as it would flag as cheating; they are posted to give you an idea of the TYPE of topic that gets a good grade.

Past essays  

Because of plagiarism concerns, we cannot share any essays from past students on this site, but you are welcome to visit LD Anderson’s CS EE world site:  CS EE World

Opinion What it means when the mercenaries appear

Elliot Ackerman’s new novel is “ 2054 ,” written with retired Adm. James Stavridis. This piece is adapted from an essay in the spring 2024 issue of Liberties, a journal of culture and politics.

In the summer after the fall of Afghanistan , I received an invitation to speak at CIA headquarters. I used to work as a paramilitary officer at the agency, and a former colleague of mine attended the discussion. Afterward, we went back to his office to catch up over a drink. The two of us had once advised the CIA-backed Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams in Afghanistan. At their height, the CTPT forces numbered in the tens of thousands. During the fall of Kabul, they played an outsize role in bringing any semblance of order to the evacuation after the government and national army dissolved.

My friend reached behind his desk and pulled out two overhead surveillance photographs. When congressional leaders had asked about the CTPT’s performance vs. that of the Afghan National Army, the CIA had shown them these photographs. “That’s a photo of the last Afghan army flight out of Kandahar,” my friend explained about the image of panic and chaos. He then showed me the second image, taken a few hours later, also at Kandahar Airfield. In it, the C-17 transport plane is in the exact same position, except the soldiers loading into the back are in neat, disciplined rows. “This is a photo of the last CTPT flight out of Kandahar.”

The Afghan National Army, which had systemic issues with discipline and graft, was deeply dysfunctional, while the CTPT was as effective as many elite U.S. infantry units. Unlike the Afghan National Army, the CTPT reported not to the Afghan government but, rather, to the U.S. government through its CIA handlers. It was a private army.

The CTPT’s mission evolved from being a small counterterrorism force used to hunt down al-Qaeda to a counterinsurgency force used to capture and to kill the Taliban leadership, to, eventually, a border security force used to hold the country together, at least as long as it could.

Private armies have played a critical role in virtually all wars; the CIA-funded CTPT in Afghanistan and the Wagner Group in Ukraine are only the most recent examples. Broadly speaking, they serve two distinct purposes: They act as a force multiplier that expands the regular military’s capacity, and they create political deniability for both a domestic and an international audience. Private armies remain a tool used by democratic leaders and authoritarians alike. Mercenaries are as old as war itself.

In the game of empire, expansion fuels prosperity and war sustains expansion. Except war is a dirty business, one that citizens of most wealthy and prosperous nations would rather avoid. Yet someone has to fight these wars and, afterward, secure the peace. Whether it’s Pax Americana, Pax Britannica or Pax Romana, pax imperia isn’t really peace; it is the illusion of peace sustained by the effective outsourcing of war. This doesn’t impugn an imperial peace — I certainly would have preferred to live in Pax Romana as opposed to the medieval turbulence that followed — but, rather, shows how these periods of political and economic stability are sustained.

During the Roman Republic — before Pax Romana — conscription was conducted through a draft of male citizens, but this contract frayed and then tore apart under the burden of imperial expansion. In 49 B.C., one of Julius Caesar’s first decrees as dictator for life was the granting of Roman citizenship to those occupying the farthest reaches of the nascent empire. Changing the preconditions of citizenship altered the composition of the army, which had profound effects on Rome, the army being its most important institution. Service in the legions would increasingly fall to nonnative Romans who never saw Rome and never spoke Latin, and whose loyalty was often more to their native-Roman officers than to the abstraction of a Rome they barely knew.

This dissolution of Roman identity within the ranks proved fatal in the empire’s final years. The mercenaries who fueled its expansion became its undoing. This is not to say the outsourcing of military service away from Rome’s center was ineffective, even if it culminated in the dissolution of Rome itself. Indeed, few nations can boast a military that conquered and garrisoned an empire over a period of nearly 1,500 years. For this reason, it comes as no surprise that other empires appropriated many of the techniques Rome pioneered.

None more so than the British. Their empire connected their small island nation to a broader world, delivering it outsize wealth, influence and power. And the jewel in the crown of the British Empire was, of course, India. The imperial era was a period of significant reform and expansion for the British military, to include a rebalancing of the empire’s reliance on regular vs. private armies.

Like the Romans, the British increased their reliance on non-British soldiers as their empire expanded. Unlike the Romans, the British did not extend rights of citizenship to the diverse array of cadres that composed their forces; instead, they incorporated their imperial charges into the empire as subjects of the crown. The British East India Company fielded the largest of these private armies, which it paid for with company proceeds. Indian sepoys (a term, derived from Persian, for a native soldier serving under foreign orders) filled the ranks while native-British officers led them, but those officers held commissions inferior to those in the regular British army.

The mission of the East India Company’s army was, simply, to secure the interests of the company on the subcontinent. The governance of colonial India is a remarkable example not only of military privatization but also of the privatization of empire. Company rule extended until 1858, after those same sepoy regiments revolted in what became known as the Indian Mutiny.

The Indian Mutiny was the result of an accumulation of social and economic resentments, as opposed to a single cause. The fighting continued for a year, with garrisons of sepoys across the country killing British officers and their families. By the end of that year, the British had regrouped and, along with sepoys loyal to the East India Company, defeated the rebels. Still, the Indian Mutiny was a debacle for the empire. It caused British leaders to question the composition and quality of their military forces. Between 1868 and 1874, a series of reforms implemented by British Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell would transform the British army from a force of gentleman-soldiers to a professional army with a robust reserve that could be mobilized in a time of war.

If the Indian Mutiny revealed the dangers of relying on private armies, it was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, in which the precursors of the German Empire routed the Second French Empire, that proved the importance of having a military reserve that a nation could rapidly mobilize.

After the Napoleonic Wars, British soldiers served brutally long 20-year enlistments. Often, these soldiers would spend many of those years far from home in various colonies and, upon retirement, older and weakened by prolonged active service, they would be of little military use as reservists. This left Britain without a pool of soldiers to mobilize in wartime. The Cardwell Reforms shortened enlistments to as little as six years, allowing soldiers to return to civilian life but remain in the reserve at reduced pay. This new policy granted British leaders access to a large reserve army, should they need it.

Prior to the Cardwell Reforms, officers in the British army didn’t earn their commissions; they purchased them. Cumulatively, British families invested millions of pounds in the purchase of commissions. Those who could not afford them served as officers in colonial regiments, which held inferior standing within the army. By the time Cardwell began implementing his reforms, this had created a dysfunctional tiered system. The army was the opposite of a meritocracy. The resulting incompetence of the uniformed aristocrats, immortalized in Tennyson’s “ The Charge of the Light Brigade ,” was disastrously proved on the battlefields of the Crimean War. The era of the gentleman-soldier in the British army was coming to an end, as was a reliance on private armies such as those deployed by the East India Company.

An empire, once acquired, must be maintained. It requires the control of territory, and this requires — to use the distinctly American term — boots on the ground . A question naturally follows: Whose boots? The reforms that Julius Caesar made to Rome’s legions, along with the ones that Cardwell made to the British army, were efforts to answer that question.

After World War II, when the United States was called “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle” against communism, as President John F. Kennedy put it in his inaugural address in 1961, the question of whose boots became foremost in the mind of U.S. military strategists. Each of the two superpowers had acquired an empire at the end of the war, and these empires needed to be garrisoned and defended against the other.

Kennedy framed the nature of that defense in a speech at West Point in 1962, in which he emphasized a new military challenge: “another type of warfare, new in its intensity, ancient in its origins — war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat; by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.” At the time Kennedy delivered this speech, he had already authorized a significant expansion of Special Operations forces within the U.S. military. In an official White House memorandum on guerrilla warfare in 1962, in which Kennedy would forever require members of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces to wear the green beret, he declared : “Pure military skill is not enough. A full spectrum of military, para-military, and civil action must be blended to produce success.” His commitment to unconventional warfare as a pillar of national defense was a strategic pivot as profound as those that took place in Britain and Rome.

This “other type of warfare” became a reality in Vietnam and a doctrine of American warfare into the next century. Strategic concepts such as “foreign internal defense” and “counterinsurgency strategy,” the latter first seen in the Philippines in the early 20th century and then further developed in Vietnam, appeared again in Iraq and Afghanistan. They rely on the U.S. military to train a partner force that eventually takes responsibility for the conduct of the war, requiring far fewer American “boots.”

This was the strategy of “Vietnamization,” which sought to bolster the South Vietnamese military. In Iraq, this was the “surge” and the “Sunni Awakening,” in which U.S. forces doubled down on training the Iraqi military while co-opting Sunni militias once loyal to al-Qaeda. In Afghanistan, it was a second surge and reinvestment in the Afghan National Army. What these examples all have in common is an American method of warfare that shifts the burden to an indigenous force, allowing American troops to withdraw. It also shifts the conditions of victory, which is less defined by conditions on the battlefield. Victory today is defined — this is an extraordinary development — by outsourcing the prosecution of a war and bringing our troops home.

In Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, this strategy yielded mixed results. Vietnam and Afghanistan were wars that America unequivocally lost. With Iraq, it is difficult to argue that the United States won, but it is equally difficult to say we lost. The Iraqi government that was created after the U.S. invasion endures, and the security services that the United States helped train have successfully carried the burden of their own security, in recent years defeating the Islamic State with little aid from American boots. When President Biden announced the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, he emphasized that “our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm’s way — U.S. boots on the ground. We have to change that thinking.”

The war in Ukraine began as a mercenary war. When Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014, the invading soldiers wore no Russian military insignia, causing many to refer to them as “little green men.” The explicit appearance of Russian soldiers would have cost Russian President Vladimir Putin more politically than he was willing to accept. In the eyes of the international community, as well as in the eyes of his citizens, there was value in deniability. Putin needed to launder his activities in Ukraine. Mercenary armies are very good at such laundering.

To lead this mercenary venture, Putin made an unlikely choice: Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a coarse former restaurateur known as “Putin’s Chef.” Backed by cadres of battle-tested field commanders, Prigozhin helped found the Wagner Group in 2014 and presided over its rapid expansion. Between 2014 and 2021, Wagner mercenaries delivered many thousands of Russian boots on the ground in places where no Russian boots should have been — Libya, Ukraine, Sudan, Mali, Venezuela, the Central African Republic and directly against American troops in Syria in February 2018. All this while the Kremlin denied Wagner’s involvement and, in some cases, its existence.

The Wagner Group was an effective military force that Putin could deploy anywhere in the world without political embarrassment. When Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Wagner Group contributed about 1,000 soldiers to the invasion, but it never assumed the lead. That job would fall to the regular Russian military, which hadn’t taken on an operation of this scope in more than a generation.

Only months into the war in Ukraine, however, the Russian military was in crisis. It was swiftly exposed as a mediocre and confused force, proving the dangers of might without competence. After sustaining heavy losses, Putin needed to replenish his ranks. But how could he sell the Russian people on a mobilization for a war that wasn’t even a war but, rather, “a special military operation”? There is no more dire threat to a political leader’s power than a failed war. So he enlarged his reliance on the Wagner Group, increasing its size and allowing its cadres to recruit in Russia’s prisons.

Like the Romans and the British, Putin would learn the dangers of vesting military power in private hands. Prigozhin began feuding with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and other senior commanders, characterizing them as incompetents. For his army of mercenaries, Prigozhin became a charismatic populist leader, airing their grievances against Russia’s military establishment. Prigozhin gave Russia a sorely needed military victory in the battle of Bakhmut, and no achievement vests a leader with political power more quickly than battlefield success. This is one of the great dangers of placing military power in the hands of private military leaders.

This was a lesson Putin learned early on the morning of June 24, 2023, when Prigozhin marched his Wagner Group soldiers off the battlefield and back into Russia.

Prigozhin’s mutiny (which might have turned into a coup) failed, with his cadres largely absorbed into the regular Russian army or banished to private wars in Africa, and with Prigozhin’s apparent assassination two months later. Yet the uprising serves as another example of the dangers that exist when a nation uses private armies. Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a state’s monopoly of force is the lack of such a monopoly.

We should be extremely cautious of wars fought with this indirect approach, designed mainly to insulate a domestic constituency from the costs of war. Proxy wars have long been elements of strategy in great-power competition, but a war fought under our flag by mercenaries is different from a proxy war. A nation that requires private armies to sustain popular support for wars is likely fighting those wars for the wrong reasons. The “good wars” — wars that must be fought and are typically fought for the right reasons — seldom rely on private armies. Beware of the nation unwilling to do its own fighting.

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