Political Risk Intelligence for Business Operations in Complex Environments

Macro-level dynamics and modelling are well represented in the mainstream political risk literature. However, not many writings on the subject get their hands dirty in terms of revealing the hard, nuanced and practical work behind knowing what the issues might be for a specific foreign operation in a sensitive or volatile context, and how to plan for them.

Political Risk Intelligence for Business Operations in Complex Environments provides international managers, and by extension their organisations, with a foundational understanding of political risk analysis and planning for on-the-ground operations in challenging times and places. This means having a fluid grasp of what political risk means and why it matters in the organisation’s context, and how relevant intelligence can be gathered and analysed to inform decisions and planning towards an operation’s socio-political resilience.

The book explains:

• How and why political risk manifests and the forms it can take
• Company attitudes and operational attributes as a political risk variable
• Understanding the operational implications of socio-political dynamics and trends
• Stakeholder identification and analysis for informed engagement planning
• Scenario analysis to prepare for long-term contingencies and discontinuities
• Holistic, intelligence-driven political risk management planning
• Tactical intelligence exercises to maintain awareness and inform adaptation
• Intelligence management, collection and quality control
• Ethical considerations in political risk management

Rather than being bound by conventional notions of risk, the book emphasises the dynamic relationship between a foreign operation and its host environment and milieu as a source of both challenges and opportunities to manage them. Concepts, frameworks and practices are rounded out with real-world examples and relevant lessons from the author’s experience as a political risk consultant.

Robert McKellar is an independent political risk consultant. He holds an MA in political science from Canada and a Master of International Business from France, and studied Arabic in Tunisia for a year. Robert’s political risk career began with periodic freelance assignments in the 1990s. He worked as an international strategic marketing consultant and with established risk advisories before creating his independent practice. Robert has conducted advisory, training and assessment cases for business and NGO clients, and has been involved with security sector reform projects in post-conflict environments. He has fieldwork experience in several regions, but particularly North Africa and the Middle East. Robert is the author of A Short Guide to Political Risk (2010) and the chapter on political risk in The Risk Management Handbook (ed. David Hillson, 2016).