A militia /mᵻˈlɪʃə/ generally is an army or other fighting unit that is composed of non-professional fighters, citizens of a nation or subjects of a state or government who can be called upon to enter a combat situation, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel, or historically, members of the warrior nobility class (e.g., knights or samurai). Unable to hold their own against properly trained and equipped professional forces, it is common for militias to engage in guerrilla warfare or defense instead of being used in open attacks and offensive actions. With the emergence of professional forces in the Renaissance, Western European militias wilted, to be revived as part of Florentine civic humanism, which held that professional militaries were a result of corruption, and admired the Roman model. The civic humanist ideal of the militia was spread through Europe by the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli (According to Hörnqvist, The Prince, ch. 12 and 13, Discourses on Livy, and The Art of War.) Beginning in the late 20th century, some militias (particularly officially recognized and sanctioned militias of a government) act as professional forces, while still being "part-time" or "on-call" organizations. For instance, the members of some U.S. Army National Guard units are considered professional soldiers, as they are trained to maintain the same standards as their "full-time" (active duty) counterparts. Militias thus can be military or paramilitary, depending on the instance. Some of the situations the term "militia" is used include forces engaged in: \n* Defense activity or service, to protect a community, its territory, property, and laws. \n* The entire able-bodied population of a community, town, county, or state, available to be called to arms. \n* A subset of these who may be legally penalized for failing to respond to a call-up. \n* A subset of these who actually respond to a call-up, regardless of legal obligation. \n* A private, non-government force, not necessarily directly supported or sanctioned by its government. \n* An irregular armed force enabling its leader to exercise military, economic, and political control over a subnational territory within a sovereign state (See: Warlord). \n* An official reserve army, composed of citizen soldiers. Called by various names in different countries such as; the Army Reserve, National Guard, or state defense forces. \n* The national police forces in several former communist states such as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, but also in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia. The term was inherited in Russia, and other former CIS countries and are known as militsiya. \n* In France the equivalent term "Milice" has become tainted due to its use by notorious collaborators with Nazi Germany. \n* A select militia is composed of a small, non-representative portion of the population, often politicized.

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