The Political Risk Analyst (II)

Political Risk Analysis is the child of two parents: political economy and area studies. Both academic fields are, per se, interdisciplinary and multifold in their approaches to studying the interrelations between political, economic, social and cultural developments in specific countries and regions, and are therefore a perfect match. As outlined in the first part of…

Political Risk and Political Due Diligence (I)

The dramatic and still undecided processes of regime change in the Arab world highlight the fundamental relevance of political risk for doing business in countries that were wrongfully regarded as stable, until the outbreak of civil unrest. Even though political violence in host countries is the most vivid case of political risk, there are other…

Food Security within the Global Risk Matrix

The rules of political survival call for the governments meeting at the G20 summit in Paris on February 18 to improve food security. While the scandal of almost one billion people worldwide affected by chronic hunger persists, it is the political risk of food riots that might give the matter a new priority. Various factors…

Regime Change by the People

The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt pose the fundamental question of how best to analyze regime change driven by the power of the people. This article explores dynamic patterns of behavior both on part of civil protest movements and targeted autocratic regimes. These patterns of interaction rule the confrontation and its ultimate outcome, and…

WEF’s Global Risks 2011: New Risk Clusters in Focus

In the lead-up to its annual meeting at Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum (WEF) issued the report Global Risks 2011. The report is set in the context of the WEF’s new platform, the Risk Response Network. The organization’s proclaimed objective to translate analysis into the development of practical solutions for the planet’s future, gives…

The Corrosion of Democracy

What has happened to the idea and practice of democracy? What many vigilant observers of countries and political systems might have concluded from their daily analysis of political events and processes, has now been confirmed as a global pattern. Democratization has not only come to a halt but has been in decline across the world…