Over the past decade political risk has grown in complexity and salience more than any other category of risk. For business, the capacity to anticipate, manage and mitigate such risk is becoming a major source of competitive advantage. For home and host states alike, the management of interdependence to support national companies overseas, or to engage with foreign companies establishing a local presence, is an increasingly significant determinant of prosperity. This volume addresses the key issues surrounding international political risk focusing particularly on how to think about it, engage with it and manage it. Gould-Davies makes an original and influential contribution that offers a fresh, rounded and comprehensive understanding of political risk, both conceptually and practically. Drawing on the author's wide experience the volume seeks to integrate the distinct perspectives of diplomacy, business and academia. Weaving analysis and case studies together, this volume will: Cast new light on the political economy of globalisation by offering a practitioner perspective on the interaction of sovereign states and private actors. Outline a `new corporate diplomacy' for systematically and creatively engaging political risk, and recommend governance and culture reforms to ensure its effective conduct Illustrate how governments can work more closely with their businesses overseas; and to attract, and engage more productively with, foreign companies on their soil. This book is the product of sustained reflection over the course of a career in academia, diplomacy and business and will serve as an accessible point of reference for all future discussion of political risk. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, IPE and international business as well as policy-makers and practitioners in both the public and private sector.

Author Biography

Nigel Gould-Davies is head of Policy and Corporate Affairs, Southeast Asia, for BG Group, an international energy company. He previously worked for ten years in the British Foreign Office, and before that taught Politics and International Relations at Oxford. He received an MPhil. from St Antony's and a Ph.D. from Harvard.