From the crisis in Ukraine to the “cyber war” between the US and North Korea, the turmoil of 2014 was a timely reminder to business that they need contingency plans for global conflict, Andrew Coburn, Director of the Advisory Board at the Centre for Risk Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, writes in an article entitled “Planning for war: a guide for businesses” in The Conversation.
Company leaders have reawakened to the potential dangers of regional conflict, including tensions between China and Japan, because such crises have big implications for financial markets and a fragile global economy.
Such risks were highlighted in the annual survey by the World Economic Forum of threats that concern political and industry leaders: WEF’s Global Risks 2015 found that interstate conflict is the top concern, after not even making the top 10 risks a year ago.
“The rise of interstate conflict as an area of top concern is long overdue,” Coburn writes, because even the most peaceful decades in history tend to have minor conflicts every few years and a regional war involving a G20 nation would be expected in at least one decade in five.
Find out more
Read “Planning for war: a guide for businesses”, The Conversation, Feb 2015
Visit Dr Andrew Coburn’s profile on the Centre for Risk Studies website
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