This book illustrates the role that Private Security Companies (PSC) with 'Chinese characteristics' play in protecting people and property associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The revival of the ancient Silk Road economic "belt," combined with the 21st Century sea lanes of communication known as the "road," is intended to enhance global connectivity and increase commercial activity. However, the socio-political risks associated with Chinese outbound direct investments are often overlooked. Terrorism, separatism, kidnapping and other risks are mostly new to Chinese companies, some of which are operating abroad for the first time. Economic globalization and the transnational exploitation of natural resources have increased the need for Chinese-owned PSCs in spite of the disdain for the profession of "a lance for hire." Due to peculiar geo-strategic and geo-economic features, the "belt" from Central Asia to Pakistan and the "road" from the Somali coast to the Strait of Malacca are characterized by a high level of insecurity. This book's focus on how the state's monopoly of force privatization can play a significant role in protecting the New Silk Road will be of interest to policymakers, journalists, and academics.

The way war is waged is evolving quickly—igniting the rise of private military contractors that offer military-style services as part of their core business model. Arduino unpacks the tradeoffs involved when conflict is increasingly waged not by national armies, but by professional outfits that thrive on chaos. This book charts the rise of private military actors from Russia, China, and the Middle East using primary source data, in-person interviews, and field research amongst operations in conflict zones around the world. Individual stories narrated by mercenaries, military trainers, security businessmen, hackers, and drone pilots will be used to introduce the beginning of each chapter. The book ends by considering today’s trajectories in the deployment of mercenaries by state, corporations, or even terrorist organizations and what it will mean for the future of conflict. The book follows private security contractors that take on missions in different countries with a variety of challenges. These include a former Singaporean commando working with a Chinese company in Kabul, a former British Royal Marine leading a Kurdish private military company in Erbil protecting BP’s oil, and a former Russian Spetsnaz defending commercial vessels from the Somali coast to the Gulf of Guinea. Aside from the human component, the book closely follows the trends in the adoption of unmanned lethal weapons and it peeks into the future of weapons that can decide autonomously to kill humans. One chapter is dedicated to loitering munitions, better known as suicide drones, used by Israel and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard for remote-controlled assassination. ISIS’s reengineered Chinese DJI commercial drones that are used for propaganda operations or as advanced artillery spotters complete the picture of the range of threats the world will routinely face in less than a decade. First-hand data and intimate knowledge of the actors involved in the market for force allow a fully grounded narrative with personal input. Through this prism, the reader gains an understanding of the human, security, and political risks that are part of this industry. The book specifically reveals the risk that unaccountable mercenaries pose in increasing the threshold for conflict, the threat to traditional military forces, the corruption in political circles, and the rising threat of proxy conflicts in the US rivalry with China and Russia. In a nutshell, the book gazes into the crystal ball to forecast what the future might look like in a world ruled by private armies.

This collection explores the expansion of Chinese outbound investments, aimed to sustain the increased need for natural resources, and how they have amplified the magnitude of a possible international crisis that the People's Republic of China may face in the near future by bringing together the views of a wide range of scholars. President Xi's Belt and Road initiative (BRI), aimed to promote economic development and exchanges with China for over 60 countries, necessitates a wide range of security procedures. While the threats to Chinese enterprises and Chinese workers based on foreign soil are poised to increase, there is an urgent need to develop new guidelines for risk assessment, special insurance and crisis management. While the Chinese State Owned Enterprises are expanding their international reach capabilities, they still do not have the capacity to assure adequate security. In such a climate, this collection will be of profound value to policy makers, those working in the financial sector, and academics.