Presentation of the cross-disciplinary project

Covid-19, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s war against Hamas, BRICS’ development of its own currency, the re-election of Donald Trump and ensuing uncertainty and conflict in the global arena with regard to the movement of goods, money and people have left business leaders unprepared to deal with geopolitical risks.

To study geopolitical risks, we adopt the view that domestic politics influences states’ international relations, allowing us to conceive of a geopolitical risk as a consequence of national politics that reflects the interests of people residing in a specific nation-state. Therefore, we aim to understand how mechanisms such as power distribution among social groups in a society, national identity and culture, civil society, checks and balances in a bureaucratic machinery, political ideology and policy goals, among others, shape domestic politics and, consequently, fuel specific geopolitical risks. Understanding these mechanisms is foundational for the accurate prediction of the ways in which geopolitical risks influence business operations and the development of accurate contingency plans. To achieve our goal through adopting this novel lens, we propose to create a group with the following complementary expertise in geopolitics, political economy, social movements and society, corporate strategy, management and multinational companies.