Join the World Affairs Council of Austin along with others interested in geopolitics, political risk, and critical rare earth mineral issues to hear from St. Edwards University students as they present conclusions from their semester-long major projects on geopolitical risk.
Given the turbulence in today’s world, governments & businesses are increasingly prioritizing assessing geopolitical risks & seeking strategies for mitigation & management of potential crisis, shock or destabilizing circumstances that might adversely impact policy, diplomacy or business investment. A general consensus exists among experts in political risk that neither qualitative or quantitative approaches provide absolute certainty as tools of prediction. However, there is much that focused analysis of geopolitical conditions, national level circumstances & trends can offer as resources in considering development & management of policy & strategy in any given regional or domestic context.
The St. Edwards students have studied the complex array of interconnected transnational trends in geopolitics, economics, socio-cultural & environmental conditions that could be consequential for stability at the global & regional levels or within specific nation-state contexts. Factors such as major power competition & conflict, cyber & hybrid challenges, propensity for societal polarization, corruption, terrorism, crime, legislation within nations restricting investment or leading to expropriation, sanctions, debt, vulnerability to environmental devastation are all issues that can affect stability & policy execution, markets & investment.
The students’ coursework also took into account material & reputational risks generated by non-state actors & individuals with increasing capacity to rival even nation-states in presenting threats to policy & business engagement throughout the world. Student presentations will focus on perspectives from both academics & industry, country case studies & form regional project teams assessing reciprocal geopolitical risk in rare earth minerals during the forum sponsored in cooperation with World Affairs Council Austin.