Anxiety in an Age of International Risk

Why Your Team Is Distracted by International Risk and What to Do About It

Let’s call it what it is: we’re living in a threat-rich environment. Not theoretical threats, not abstract risks — real, tangible geopolitical instability knocking at the corporate front door. War in Europe. A volatile Middle East. The potential return of Trump and the unraveling of global norms. Add in climate collapse, democratic erosion, and rising extremism, and you’ve got a cocktail of uncertainty that bleeds into boardrooms, Zoom calls, and after-school pickups. This isn’t just noise — it’s a persistent, strategic drag on performance, focus, and wellbeing. At The International Risk Podcast, we’ve seen time and again how today’s international risk landscape creates psychological aftershocks that CEOs, managers, and even frontline employees are unequipped to navigate the international risks.

War on Europe’s doorstep. Middle East teetering on the edge. Authoritarianism rebranded and making a comeback. This isn’t fearmongering, it’s just Tuesday. For leaders, employees, and citizens alike, the flood of geopolitical instability, democratic backsliding, climate crises, and societal fragmentation is no longer occasional background noise, it’s the ambient soundtrack of modern life. The international risk landscape is not a specialist concern anymore; it’s a daily psychological load and its why most executive teams are huddling close to their strategic advisors. And it’s reshaping how we live, how we work, and how we lead. As strategic advisors, we’re not just navigating threats — we’re helping people survive the mental toll of a world in constant crisis.

Half the Population in Sweden Fears a New World War

Let’s drop the pleasantries and look at the data. In Sweden, nearly half the population fears a new world war. Globally, 80 percent of Gen Z is battling climate anxiety, with many reporting disrupted sleep, altered diets, and general despair. This isn’t about fragile kids, it’s about an entire generation internalizing systemic risk. If you work in leadership and you’re not thinking about how international threats shape employee behavior, morale, and mental health, you’re not leading properly. If you are not considering how international risk is impacting your business, your employees, your decision-making processes, then you’re sleepwalking through a geopolitical minefield.

Social cohesion is also under siege. As global threats multiply, local effects compound, which is fueling racism, mistrust, and polarization. Every new hate crime, every flailing democracy, every collapse of institutional trust becomes another pressure point on the public psyche. Strategic risk today isn’t just external. It’s internal, emotional, and cultural. The smarter organizations are already asking: how do we protect against the erosion of psychological safety inside our walls while the world burns outside?

This anxiety isn’t confined to warzones or political hotspots. It bleeds into the mundane of every day life. You’re brushing your teeth and thinking about Gaza. Walking your child to school and reading about a possible Russian invasion. This is the new reality: geopolitical threat has become personal. And because we are all hyperconnected, the emotional cost is globalized too. No matter how stable your local situation, the strategic risk flows through your news feed, your inbox, your Slack channel. And yes, the realised risks hit your bottom line too.

Let’s be honest: none of us can fully switch off. You can delete Twitter, block news apps, go full Zen mode, but geopolitical anxiety has a way of seeping back in. Some try information fasting, others doomscroll until 1 a.m. Neither is a strategy. Both are symptoms. And if you’re a CEO or executive reading this and wondering why your team feels burnt out, demotivated, or checked out, maybe it’s not about KPIs. Maybe it’s about living under constant international threat with zero structured response. Or let’s be honest, maybe the economic uncertainty is causing you to hold back on well-deserved salary increases…

International Risk is Ever Present, and More Knowledge and Engagement is Needed

The unease from international risk walks through your office door every morning. It takes a seat in your meetings. It interrupts productivity with sudden dread. Leaders often underestimate how ambient risk erodes daily performance. Guilt. Helplessness. Anger. Distraction. These are not abstract emotions, they are hidden variables in your operational equation and workplace productivity. Strategic advice in this context requires more than scenario planning. It requires human insight.

And here’s where it gets trickier: the workplace itself becomes a pressure cooker. Coffee machine chatter turns into low-level group therapy, or heated geopolitical debate. One person’s justified outrage is another’s political trigger. Social polarization doesn’t take a day off, and international risk doesn’t respect workplace boundaries. For those directly impacted including minorities under threat, employees with family in conflict zones, or all of us that are worried about job security, the threat is not theoretical. It’s immediate. It’s real. And it’s showing up in your engagement scores, retention metrics, and sick leave data.

But here’s the twist: work and knowledge can also be the lifeline. A stable, purpose-driven job is one of the most underrated resilience assets we have. Routine can be therapeutic. Problem-solving can be grounding. Collaboration, when it works, reminds us we’re still human. And providing staff with robust and regular information is more impactful than medicine. I’ve worked with companies from Sudan to Stockholm that treat the workplace as a shelter, not from truth, but from chaos. It’s not about escapism. It’s about channeling energy into something tangible, local, and controllable. It is about properly understand the risks and the implications. And yes, that’s a huge competitive advantage.

Mechanisms to Mitigate the Workplace International Risks

The organisations getting this right are not in denial. They’re leaning in. They build internal mechanisms including peer support, guided forums, stress check-ins, and access to trusted international risk advisors that acknowledge the external chaos without letting it run the show. They make international risk part of the conversation. Not by fearmongering, but by legitimizing the reality employees already live with. That’s not soft stuff. That’s strategy.

And don’t underestimate the power of community and collaboration. When colleagues look out for one another, when leaders acknowledge fear without trying to spin it, when inclusion and empathy aren’t HR buzzwords but daily behaviors and organisations become anti-fragile. That’s not just good culture. That’s smart geopolitics. It’s also the best inoculation we have against polarization and division metastasizing inside the organization.

Some companies I work with go even further by channeling global concern into global action. Launching sustainability initiatives, supporting conflict-affected communities, or simply allowing teams to contribute to causes that matter. These aren’t PR gimmicks. They’re psychological ballast. In a high-risk world, meaning is an asset. Hope is strategic. Action is leadership.

This isn’t about sugarcoating reality. The world is volatile, uncertain, and, in many places, getting worse before it gets better. But we are not powerless. And businesses, oddly enough, are some of the most effective actors in building resilience. When the workplace becomes a platform for trust, clarity, and purpose in the face of international risk, we steady the ship and we define what healthy leadership actually looks like in a threat-saturated world.