Hunt of the Sea Wolves

Middle East Times

The news that Blackwater Worldwide is offering its services to shippers plagued by pirates — an issue recently in the headlines, due to the continuing attacks on ships off Somalia — has set the media twittering about the latest domain to be outsourced to private military contractors.

But in reality, this is hardly something new. Though it has not received much attention, private security contractors have been working the maritime beat for many years now, and not just off Africa. In fact, centuries ago the East India Company employed private convoys to protect its ships from pirates.

But there is an irony at work here. For if private security contractors are used to fight pirates, it would be a case of contractor vs. contractor. Historically, pirates were some of the first contractors, in that they formed a company, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder, what we now call profit, is divided according to an agreed convention. In many respects, they were the first corporations.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Blackwater, Pirate Hunters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.