Explore our in-depth articles and expert analysis on global risks, geopolitical shifts, and emerging threats. Dive deeper into the complex topics explored in our show with thought-provoking content on international risk management.
Written by Edward Penrose – 24.04.2026 For security leaders, policymakers, and risk professionals, the most dangerous mistake today is to assume that terrorism is receding simply because some of its older forms have weakened. Terrorism is not disappearing; instead, it is mutating. What analysts previously perceived as a relatively bounded problem of distinct organisations and…
When ransomware shuts down a pipeline, exposes hospital data, or forces a local authority offline, the disruption is often framed as a technical failure. In reality, these incidents represent the visible edge of something far more structured: a global criminal economy that increasingly mirrors the organisation of legitimate industry. Ransomware has evolved from opportunistic hacking…
Climate change is no longer a distant or abstract risk in the context of global security. It is actively reshaping the physical environment in which military systems operate, altering the reliability of infrastructure, and introducing new forms of uncertainty into strategic decision-making. As Dr Florian Krampe of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) argues…
Violent crime in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has for decades imposed a heavy toll on lives and economic performance. Outside of active war zones, the region remains the most violent in the world, accounting for roughly one-third of global homicides despite just 8% of the global population. The economic consequences are equally severe….
For years, disinformation has been framed primarily as a political or media problem, associated with election interference, bot networks, and foreign influence campaigns. It is often treated as something external to core systems. It is portrayed as an issue for platforms, regulators, or communications teams to manage. Yet this framing obscures a more complex and…
For years, organised crime in Mexico has been framed primarily through the lens of drug trafficking. Cartels are often portrayed as singular entities competing for control over narcotics routes into the United States, with violence understood as a by-product of this competition. Yet this framing obscures a more complex and evolving reality. As David Mora,…
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…
Written by Edward Penrose – 01.04.2026 For defence leaders across Europe and North America, Canada has become an unusually revealing test case. The question is no longer simply whether Ottawa will spend more on defence. The harder question is whether a middle power can remain credible inside NATO while reducing dangerous overdependence on the United States. That…
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…
21st-century digital transformations of the information environment have reconfigured how knowledge is produced, validated, and contested. Disinformation is no longer confined to discrete falsehoods or orchestrated state propaganda; it now operates within a participatory and highly networked ecosystem in which information is continuously generated, amplified, and recursively reshaped across digital platforms. In the United States,…
