The AI Bet: Huge Investment, Job Cuts, and Uncertain Returns

The AI Bet: Huge Investment, Job Cuts, and Uncertain Returns

AI is rapidly becoming a central axis of economic transformation, corporate strategy, and geopolitical risk. What began as experimentation with generative tools has evolved into a full-scale reconfiguration of how firms invest, operate, and compete. In a recent episode of the International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen spoke with Craig Unsworth, a portfolio Chief Product…

Episode 345 The AI Bet: Huge Investment, Job Cuts, and Uncertain Returns

Today on The International Risk Podcast, we turn to the accelerating transformation of the global economy through artificial intelligence. Firms are making aggressive bets on future demand, and mid-market companies are grappling with rising costs, limited visibility, and mounting pressure to prove ROI. To help us make sense of this, we’re joined by Craig Unsworth, a…

Craig Unsworth

Craig Unsworth

Craig Unsworth is a commercially proven portfolio Chief Product Officer and Non-Executive Director who works at the intersection of Private Equity, AI, and product transformation. With two decades of experience and over 60 transactions under his belt, Craig partners with private equity firms and their portfolio companies to unlock growth, build capability, and accelerate value…

Taiwanese Politics and the China Question

Taiwanese Politics and the China Question

Cross-strait tensions are once again at the centre of geopolitical risk. For much of the post-Cold War period, Taiwan existed as a persistent but often background issue in international politics. Today, that is no longer the case. Intensifying US–China competition, rising military pressure from Beijing, and shifting domestic dynamics within Taiwan have brought the island’s…

Ukraine Missile Attack in Russia

Hypersonic Missiles, Nuclear Deterrence and the New Arms Race

Nuclear weapons are back at the centre of global politics. For much of the post Cold War era, they lingered in the background, casting a long but often ignored shadow over international affairs. Today, that shadow has sharpened. Great power rivalry has returned, arms control agreements are eroding, and emerging technologies are reshaping how states…

Episode 331: Hypersonic Missiles, Nuclear Deterrence and the New Arms Race

In this episode of the International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon. The conversation moves beyond the hype to examine the structural drivers of today’s nuclear competition,…

Ankit Panda

Ankit Panda

Ankit Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research interests include nuclear strategy, escalation, missiles and missile defense, space security, and U.S. alliances. He is the author of The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon (Polity, 2025),  Panda has consulted for the United…

Episode 329: Inside the War in Ukraine: Strategy, Technology and the Future of Security with Elizabeth Bullock

This episode with Elizabeth Bullock examines the lived reality of modern conflict in Ukraine, drawing on her three years providing frontline humanitarian aid. From evacuating civilians under fire to navigating the evolving threats of drones, hypersonic missiles, and weaponised infrastructure, Elizabeth provides an unflinching look at how war shapes both society and strategy and what…

Elizabeth Bullock

Elizabeth Bullock

Elizabeth Bullock is one of few Westerners to have spent three continuous years in frontline areas of Russia’s Modern War. Her time in Ukraine evolved into more than 1,000 days spent primarily in the eastern Donbas and the southern (Kherson) front. She founded and led an independent, quick-response unit, executing strategic operations to help civilians…

Inside the War in Ukraine: Strategy, Technology and the Future of Security

Inside the War in Ukraine: Strategy, Technology and the Future of Security

The war in Ukraine did not begin in February 2022. That date marks the escalation to full-scale invasion, but the conflict itself began in 2014 with Russia’s hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. Since February 2022, however, the war has evolved into Europe’s largest conventional conflict since the Second World War….