Political Risk in the 21st Century
May 2, 2018
Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State and Senior Fellow in Public Policy, Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Amy Zegart, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Co-Director, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University
Moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Professor Amy Zegart of Stanford University visited the school for a discussion on their new book, Political Risk: Facing the Threat of Global Insecurity in the Twenty-First Century.
Rice and Zegart explained that their book's purpose was to describe how technology has forever changed who counts as a 'political actor.' The field of political risk has traditionally centered on governments, central banks, and politicians as risk factors. Today, however, major disruptions can be caused by Twitter users, terrorists, activists, hackers, and insurgents.
Technology has enabled virtually anyone to publish and promote their views at will, which has changed the landscape of political risk and made it a factor that every business, no matter their size or location, needs to prepare for, Rice and Zegart said.
For the audience of students and alumni—many of whom are current or aspiring practitioners of political risk consulting—the discussion was an excellent extension of the material and cases they have studied in the classroom.
