The Routledge Handbook of Political Risk

The Routledge Handbook of Political Risk explores the context, analysis, and management of political risk arising from recent tectonic geopolitical challenges to the world order posed by pandemics, nationalist policy interventions, changing supply chains, technological transformation, and the climate crisis.

Seasoned and emerging academics from the Global North and South, alongside risk practitioners and business professionals from multiple continents and industries, reconsider and address policy-oriented questions in relation to social, political, democratic, environmental, economic, security, technological, and geopolitical challenges. Across five distinctive parts, this Handbook considers ethical risks, populism, weaponised interdependence, protectionism, the disruptive effects of AI, company case studies, industries, and political risk management, while also reconsidering the future of political risk.

The volume will appeal to scholars and students of international business and management studies, political science, area studies, security studies, geography, history, and sociology. In the absence of functioning global governance to mitigate such risks, it will also be of great use to a range of consultants, investors, business practitioners, and corporations.

Julian Campisi is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto -Scarborough. He completed his PhD in Political Science at York University in 2019. His research interests are predominantly in the field of international political economy and comparative politics, specifically the methodologies that underpin political risk assessments in the private and public realms, with specific interest in the Italian case. Julian was a visiting scholar in 2015-16 at LUISS University in Rome; he completed his MA at UBC Vancouver in European Studies, and his BA at U Ottawa in International Studies. Julian has worked and studied in China, Australia, and Italy over the years in a variety of industries. Currently, he teaches courses on Canadian politics, IPE, public policy, IR, and multiculturalism, in addition to providing consulting advice on geopolitical risks. Julian was a 2022 Associate Fellow at JHU SAIS Bologna, a 2021 MITACS Canadian Science Policy Fellow with the Department of National Defence, and a recent S&T Fellow with the IAI on global change research.

Johannes Leitner is co-founder and Managing Partner at LM Political Risk and Strategy Advisory, a boutique-advisory firm in Austria. He is a recognized expert in the fields of geostrategy, trade compliance management, political risk management, and global business strategy with more than 15 years of professional experience. In addition, he is academic director of the EMBA program global business management at the University of Applied Science BFI Vienna. Johannes Leitner frequently leads expert and academic panels at international conferences, including, among others, at Cambridge University. He received his PhD from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and graduated in International Business Studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and in Political Science at the University of Vienna. In addition, he was a visiting scholar at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Hannes Meissner is a political scientist dealing with political risk analysis and political risk management of multinational enterprises with a focus on Eastern Europe, Russia, South Caucasus and Central Asia. He is Managing Partner at LM Political Risk and Strategy Advisory GmbH and an expert for (geo-)political risks in Eastern Europe, the Black Sea region, and Central Asia in the Expert Team Global Political Economy at the University for Economics, Management & Finance - University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. He is further more part of the Research Group Eastern Europe at the University of Vienna and associated with the University of Gothenburg in the V-Dem Project, acting as a country expert on Turkmenistan. Hannes Meissner has a doctoral degree (PhD) from the University of Hamburg. During his PhD studies, he was a PhD fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and furthermore engaged in the research programme ＂Corruption and Informal Networks＂ at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen. Hannes Meissner was a PhD scholar of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (KAS) and received a full scholarship by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany.

Cecilia Emma Sottilotta is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Department of International Human and Social Sciences of the University for Foreigners of Perugia (Unistrapg) and, since 2021, a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, where she teaches Political Risk Analysis in a European perspective. She completed her PhD in Political Theory at Luiss University in 2013, and between 2017 and 2022 she was Assistant Professor of International Relations and Global Politics at the American University of Rome. She has been Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Salzburg, Austria (2016), Visiting Professor at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia (2017 and 2023), DAAD Visiting Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies - GIGA Hamburg (2019), Visiting Researcher at the Jacques Delors Centre of the Hertie School, Berlin (2021).