Back in 2007, the private security company Blackwater gained a lot of negative attention in the United States over what they were doing in Iraq. At the height of the war there, Blackwater received contracts from the United States government to provide protective services to diplomats and VIPs in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.
In September 2007, Blackwater contractors shot and killed a number of Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. The contractors involved in the shooting were tried in the U.S., but only one has received any jail time. He is awaiting a new trial after a three-judge panel tossed the conviction.
It was another ugly chapter in the United States-led war in Iraq. Blackwater, the company involved in the shooting, was founded by a man named Erik Prince. He had a short career as a Navy SEAL officer and started the company as Blackwater Worldwide in 1997. From 1997 to 2010, Blackwater would be awarded $2 billion in government security contracts, much of which was classified work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Prince became well-known after the 2007 incident in Iraq. It forced him to change Blackwater to Xe Services in 2009 and then to Academi in 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors.
Unable to continue securing work for the U.S. government, Prince began focusing on other countries. He moved on from his Blackwater days and started a new private security company called Frontier Services Group. The company’s goal is to help Chinese businesses with security, aviation, and logistics while working in Africa, an area of increasing interest for China. In 2013, Prince sold controlling interest of Frontier to Chinese entrepreneurs, and he remained on as chairman.
Some of Frontier Services Group’s work in China includes the building and running of the International Security Defense College. Founded in 2011, the school is located in the Shunyi district of Beijing and is considered to be China’s first anti-violence and terrorism training college. The courses in firearms, physical fitness, hand-to-hand combat, riot control, counterterrorism, explosive ordinance disposal, hostage negotiation, and more are taught to Chinese military personnel and police officers by security experts.
All of this going on in China leads one to wonder about the position this puts Prince in. China is the United States’ largest and most dangerous rival. The Chinese have demonstrated an interest in expanding their influence in Asia and Africa, and Frontier appears to be assisting with this mission. Prince is effectively offering military-style security services for China to project their power globally, a move that appears to be not just about the money Prince is getting but a response to how he feels the U.S. government treated him after the incident in Iraq. Perhaps he feels betrayed.
No matter what Prince’s objective is in working with the Chinese, the move is unsettling. Many will see him as a traitor for working with the largest rival of the United States and at a time where both countries are maneuvering for greater global influence. Others may see him as a businessman and entrepreneur following a business opportunity and helping a country protect its citizens from the continuing terrorist threat.
