Businesses preparing for another year of Geopolitical tumult
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Businesses are bracing for another year of geopolitical uncertainty, with large question marks looming over President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy strategy and broader global tumult, despite some executives’ optimism about the year ahead. Geopolitical concerns remain top of mind amid general global uncertainty and, in particular, a continued reordering of the U.S.-China relationship.
Multiple governments around the world saw turmoil in a single week, Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman told attendees at a conference last month, citing France, Syria and South Korea. “To say that there is geopolitical instability in the world would be a gross understatement," he said. The costs of doing business globally have come to a 10-year peak as deglobalization and so-called friend-shoring gain momentum, according to an analysis released in November by Verisk Maplecroft, a consulting firm.
“In recent years, businesses have been blindsided by a cascade of disruptions—the pandemic, renewed conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, surging populism, intense competition for green minerals and escalating protectionism—which have forced a fundamental reset of longstanding strategies," said Reema Bhattacharya, Verisk Maplecroft’s head of Asia research. “The old playbook, focused on market size, costs and efficiency, has been upended. Now, geopolitics is the driving force," Bhattacharya said.
The evolving U.S.-China relationship has seen a number of businesses caught in the crossfire, including TikTok, now facing an imminent ban stateside, and e-commerce giants such as Shein and Temu, which have been frequent targets for U.S. officials. China for its part has ratcheted up pressure on
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