The International Risk Podcast

Today, we are joined by Ted McKenna. Ted is co-author of the bestselling book The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision, and a founding partner of DCM Insights. He is an accomplished sales and customer experience researcher whose work has appeared in the pages of Harvard Business Review and a sought-after speaker and advisor to sales, business development, and customer experience teams around the world.  Prior to co-founding DCMi, Ted held numerous executive leadership positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds Associates, and CEB (now, a part of Gartner).  Ted is an expert in analyzing behaviours—of customers, doer-sellers, frontline sales & service agents, leaders, and board members—and applying analytics in various forms of content, products, and services. At Tethr, Ted worked on mining unstructured conversational data using advanced data science and leading AI/ML tools to build models, scores, and behavioural frameworks (the most well-known model is the Tethr Effort Index). Previous roles called for deploying syndicated research methods to mine more structured sources such as surveys, diagnostics, demographics, and jobs data (including research contained within the bestselling book, The Challenger Sale).  Ted holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Iowa and resides with his family in the Chicago, Illinois area. Tell us what you liked!

The International Risk Podcast is a weekly podcast for senior executives, board members, and risk advisors. In these podcasts, we speak with experts in a variety of fields to explore international risk. Our host is Dominic Bowen, Head of Strategic Advisory at one of Europe's leading risk management consulting firms. Dominic is a regular public and corporate event speaker, and visiting lecturer at several universities. Having spent the last 20 years successfully establishing large and complex operations in the world's highest-risk areas and conflict zones, Dominic now joins you to speak with exciting guests from around the world to discuss international risk.The International Risk Podcast – Reducing risk by increasing knowledge.Follow us on LinkedIn for all our great updates.Over the last few weeks we have talked about some of the facets of transnational organised crime, and today's episode will continue to explore these international risks. According to the UK Government, the illicit drugs market is big business, worth an estimated £9.4 billion a year in the UK alone.  Globally, over 236.1 million ransomware attacks occurred globally in the first half of 2022.  The international drug trade and cybercrime are two independent but interconnected concerns that have emerged in response to the globalised aspect of the modern world. The international drug trade is the illegal trafficking of narcotics and psychoactive substances across borders, facilitated by sophisticated criminal organisations that operate on a global scale. In contrast, cybercrime refers to a wide range of unlawful crimes carried out using digital means, such as hacking, identity theft, and online fraud.  While these international risks may appear unconnected, they have some similarities, such as the employment of advanced technology, international networks, and the exploitation of vulnerabilities in global systems. Criminal organisations involved in the drug trade frequently use cyber tools to communicate, launder money, and evade law enforcement. Additionally, the dark web serves as a platform for both drug trafficking and various forms of cybercrime.  The intertwining of these illicit activities poses complex challenges for international law enforcement and requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach to address these risks. In order to help us unpack these two vast networks of transnational organised crime, and their potential intersections, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr Christopher Allen.Dr. Chris Allen is a researcher, lecturer, consultant and commentator specialising in organised crime and how it operates.  He has significant experience in lecturing on drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking and firearms trafficking, among other subjects. Chris is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant of the London Policing College. He is also the creator of the U BATTLE toolkit, an investigative strategy development tool that began under City of London Police in 2018 and since then has gained national and international recognition. U BATTLE uses the adapted versions of traditional business analysis techniques to improve the development of investigative strategies in order to dismantle organised crime groups. Furthermore, he is a member of the Society for Evidence Based Policing, the European Political Research Consortium Standing Group on Organised Crime and the International Association for the Study of Organised Crime. Tell us what you liked!

Rupert Younger, expert in corporate reputation, discusses the influence of digital media on reputation management, the impact of ESG on crisis management, the power and vulnerability of images, the importance of transparency and authenticity, and the risks of intolerance in society.

A few weeks ago, we spoke to Nathan Paul Southern, who gave us a deep dive into the links transnational criminal organisations have to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Transnational crime is a topic so vast, it would be an injustice to only cover one aspect of it, given  its impact on international risk. Today, we are going to discuss a hugely pertinent issue, human trafficking and people smuggling. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ‘Human trafficking is a global crime that trades in people and exploits them for profit. People of all genders, ages and backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. Traffickers use violence, fraudulent employment agencies, and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick, coerce and deceive their victims’ Victims of trafficking can be any age, any gender and from anywhere in the world. According to UNODC’s 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons which is compiled using official figures from over 141 countries, female victims continue to be the primary targets. The Report shows that in 2020 42 percent of detected victims were women and 18 percent girls. For male victims, the Report shows that 23 per cent of detected victims were men and 17 per cent were boys. The Report shows that the share of children among detected trafficking victims has tripled while the share of boys has increased five times over the past 15 years. Globally, one in every three victims detected is a child. Girls are mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation, while boys are used for forced labour. The share of detected male victims has risen from around 10 per cent in 2003 to 40 per cent in 2020. To help us unpack this vast global issue, we are excited to be joined by Roy McComb. Roy is an experienced former law enforcement officer having held executive leadership roles as the Head of Organised Crime in Northern Ireland and a Deputy Director in the (UK) National Crime Agency, where he was the UK law enforcement lead for Modern Slavery/Human Trafficking, as well as Child Sexual Abuse. He now provides strategic advice on organized crime on a number of international projects, and is currently based in Mogadishu Somalia. Tell us what you liked!

Exploring the evolution of ESG investing and challenges in reporting for companies. Regional and industry-specific variances in ESG practices shed light on sustainability priorities. Navigating ESG for corporate reputation and global concerns highlight nature-based solutions for sustainable progress.

Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 17 December 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly. While they were initially scheduled to be held by 30 April 2026, Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia, called a snap election in November 2023, after previously announcing that snap elections could be either held in 2023 or 2024. In addition to the parliamentary elections, the Vojvodina provincial and local elections were held in 65 cities and municipalities, including the capital, Belgrade. Data released by the election commission on Wednesday showed President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive party (SNS) won 46.75% of the vote, while a pro-European opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, got 23.66%.   The 2023 Serbian elections were highly contentious and sparked major controversy due to a number of reasons that created doubts about the electoral process's fairness and openness. President Aleksandar Vui's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won a resounding win, maintaining its political control. However, the elections were criticised by opposition parties and international observers for charges of media censorship, limited freedom of expression, and unequal access to the media, all of which favoured the incumbent party. There were allegations that state resources were being exploited to assist the SNS campaign, jeopardising the electoral environment's impartiality. Furthermore, the opposition parties expressed worries about voter intimidation and irregularities, calling the election results into question. In order to help unpack these controversies and what these elections mean for both Serbia and the Balkans region as a whole, we are joined once again by Dr Alexander Mesarovich.Alexander Mesarovich earned his PhD (Politics) at the University of Edinburgh. His thesis analysed the impact of informal political networks on the EU accession processes of Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. Since finishing his PhD, Alexander has been a teaching assistant at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling and has worked as a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Strathclyde. Alexander was previously on the IRP discussing the international risks associated with EU enlargement in the Balkans.  You can listen to that conversation at episode 141. Tell us what you liked!

The International Risk Podcast is a weekly podcast for senior executives, board members, and risk advisors. In these podcasts, we speak with experts in a variety of fields to explore international risk. Our host is Dominic Bowen, Head of Strategic Advisory at one of Europe's leading risk management consulting firms. Dominic is a regular public and corporate event speaker, and visiting lecturer at several universities. Having spent the last 20 years successfully establishing large and complex operations in the world's highest-risk areas and conflict zones, Dominic now joins you to speak with exciting guests from around the world to discuss international risk.The International Risk Podcast – Reducing risk by increasing knowledge.Follow us on LinkedIn for all our great updates.Today, we are thrilled to be joined by Nathan Paul Southern, an investigative journalist, a PhD Candidate at the University of St. Andrews, and a senior investigator at KSI, an independent investigative and research consultancy. As a non-traditional security specialist, he focuses on the links between organised crime, governance and armed groups. His work explores Chinese organised crime and the BRI, human trafficking, the global war on drugs, environmental crime, and the transnational trade in small arms. His geographical interest stretches through Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Europe, and the dynamic between organised crime and militancy in the Sahel.  Tell us what you liked!

Today we are thrilled to be joined by Thammy Evans, a non-resident Senior Fellowat the GeoTech Center of the Atlantic Council and a member of its Global China Hub. She is also a Senior Research Associate of the Climate Change (In)Security Project – a collaboration between Rueben College of Oxford University and the British Army’s Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research (CHACR). Thammy has spent much of her career working in the dual areas of security sector reform and ecological security, and her diverse career spans systems sustainability, security sector reform, gender and security, public information and political advising. From meagre means raised in self-sufficient farming, she has weaved one strand of her career in and out of individual and household sustainability, community and corporate sustainability and now national and international ecological security. Spanning private, public sector, local and international NGOs, her work has taken her abroad extensively, working for and with the UN, NATO, the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Reform and Justice (DCAF), Rocky Mountain Institute (resource efficiency consulting), Global Action Plan UK, and at the forerunner of Flamingo in international market research. She has been closely involved throughout her career with strategy and doctrine development internationally as well as turning policy and strategy into concrete plans and action. As a Colonel in the UK Army Reserves, she is spending the academic year 2023/24 as a full time Member of the Global Strategy Programme at the Royal College of Defence Studies Thammy has published with Carnegie Europe, Chatham House, British Army Review, Modern Asian Studies, and Small Wars Journal on topics of ecological and regenerative security, security sector reform, human security, China, gendered analysis, and on travel. She is a speaker and facilitator for a variety of organisations and conferences. This is her first podcast appearance.Watch how final negotiations balance energy opportunity with climate insecurity risks, 12 December 2023, Atlantic Council Cop28 Live blogEcological Security: The New Military Operational Priority for Humanitarian and Disaster Response co-authored with Gary Lewis, former regional director at UNEP, published 1 December in the book Climate Change, Conflict & (In)Security: Hot WarClimate Impact Scenarios (2023, Westminster Energy Forum)Building Global Climate Security (2021, Chatham House) co-authored with Dr Patrick Shroeder, includes my original working definition of regenerative securityEconomic Regeneration as a Vehicle for System Resilience (2021, Carnegie Europe) co-authored with John Elkington (the ‘godfather of sustainability)Tell us what you liked!

 We are thrilled to be joined today by Valentin’s Lira. Valentina is an Industrial Engineer from the University of Chile, with a postgraduate degree in Environmental Economics from the University of California Berkeley. She worked as a Development Engineer at CMPC Holding and as Director of the Development and Conservation Program of Fundación Chile, achieving the first sale of carbon credits from forestry projects in Chile. Since 2011, Valentina Lira the Sustainability Division at Viña Concha y Toro, in charge of the development and implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Strategy. During this time, the company has integrated the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and has become the first Latin American company to make its commitment to reduce emissions based on climate science and became the largest winery being B Corp Certified. Since 2020, she has been an active member of the SBT Net-Zero Expert Advisory Group, contributing to the generation of a global standard for Net Zero Emission scenario.  Valentina has recently returned from COP28 in Dubai. This year had an enormous emphasis on business and how companies can become more environmentally conscious. Environmental, social and corporate governance, also known as ESG is becoming a commercial necessity in addition to providing significant benefits to companies. In light of the intensifying global race to attain net-zero emissions, companies seeking to enter into new alliances and partnerships need to be able to articulate their ESG strategy and, more importantly, explain how they intend to carry it out. This makes getting support from a variety of stakeholders and creating a coherent, fair, and transparent approach to ESG at COP28 even more crucial.  We are very excited to hear from Valentina about her experiences at the COP conference, as well as the opportunities and risks presented to businesses in the broader world of ESG  Tell us what you liked!

In today's episode of The International Risk Podcast, we turn our attention to the intricate and dynamic process of EU enlargement in the Balkans. The region, known for its complex political and ethnic landscape, is at a pivotal moment in its integration into the European Union. We will explore the influence of the EU's policies on the Balkans, the socio-economic and political hurdles faced by countries in the region, and the broader geopolitical consequences of their potential accession to the EU. This discussion is timely and critical, as the stability and future of the Balkans are not just regional but also global concerns that touch on issues of democracy, security, and international cooperation. We are privileged to welcome Dr. Alexander Mesarovich a scholar with an extensive background in the politics of EU enlargement. Dr. Mesarovich's research into the influence of informal political networks on accession processes provides us with a unique lens through which to examine the ongoing transformations in the Balkans. With his postdoctoral work at the European University Institute focusing on the diffusion of illiberalism and populism, Dr. Mesarovich offers invaluable insights into the current challenges and future prospects of EU enlargement policy. Tell us what you liked!