#209 Erik Prince & Erik Bethel - The China / Taiwan Conflict

from Shawn Ryan Show

by Shawn Ryan

Published: Mon Jun 16 2025

Show Notes

Erik Prince is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL, and the founder of Blackwater, a private military company established in 1997. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Prince heads Frontier Resource Group, a private equity firm, and promotes economic development in emerging markets. He hosts the podcast Off Leash with Erik Prince, launched in 2023,and founded Unplugged, a privacy-focused smartphone company. Prince, a vocal advocate for privatizing military operations and deregulation, has been linked to controversial arms deals and Trump-era political operations.

Erik Bethel is a General Partner at Mare Liberum, a fund focused on sustainability and national security in the maritime domain. He is a global finance professional with experience in the private and public sectors. In 2020,he was nominated to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Panama. Previously, he was nominated by the President and confirmed unanimously by the Senate to represent the United States at the World Bank. At the World Bank, Erik participated in the analysis and deployment of over $100 billion of capital in the developing world through grants, loans, equity investments, and other financial products. Previously, Erik spent over twenty years working as an investment banker and private equity professional at Franklin Templeton Investments, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. Erik earned a BS in economics and political science from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on several Boards, including the United States Naval War College Foundation, is a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and is an Advisor to Oxford Analytica - a geopolitical think tank. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin.

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