Jun 20, 2025
Erik Prince pitches himself as a solutions-oriented innovator. In reality, everything he touches turns to shit.
IN THE EARLY AUGHTS, the global war on terror—as the U.S. military refers to its forever wars hunting those it deems “terrorists” all over the world—created a number of new cultural mainstays in the United States: Osama bin Laden, waterboarding, Islamophobia, Jack Bauer. Within that pantheon, nestled somewhere between nü metal and Jeremy Renner, is the infamous Erik Prince—shadowy founder of the disgraced mercenary firm Blackwater. Like many aspects of the GWOT, we’re still stuck with him more than two decades later.
