America First, reputation next
Three-quarters of comms leaders now rank geopolitical risk as their top concern, yet many are unprepared for an increasingly fragmented world where US soft power no longer dominates.
Five years ago, according to Oxford-Globescan's annual study, just 47% of senior corporate affairs practitioners identified geopolitical risk as their primary concern. Today, that proportion has soared to 76%, according to the study's latest edition — reflecting how we are all, apparently, geopolitical risk managers now.
Geopolitical instability not only ranks as the top concern for corporate affairs leaders, but is expected to be the clear frontrunner for at least the next two years. In every region except North America, furthermore, the research ranks geopolitical risk as the top short-term threat to business.
The factors in play — ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, intensifying East–West tensions, rising social inequality and renewed populism — make this shift in sentiment unsurprising. A new question introduced by Oxford-Globescan this year adds notable clarity: geopolitics and regulatory/policy uncertainty are ranked as the top sources of reputation risk, ahead of traditional drivers like product quality and financial performance.
Understanding how corporate affairs leaders effectively navigate this new era, particularly as President Trump's latest wave of tariffs start to bite, is of considerable interest. Especially when you consider the impact on American brands, in a corporate communications sector that remains dominated by US-led MNCs across large parts of the world.
