In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Dr Duncan Depledge about climate change and its growing impact on the world's militaries.

This conversation looks at the geopolitics of the Arctic, the role of energy and logistics in warfare, and the growing competition across the High North, exploring how environmental change has become a central concern in defence planning.

Duncan explains why it is a problem for militaries today rather than in the future, and why armed forces now treat a warming world as a practical operational challenge instead of a distant environmental one.

The discussion examines whether militaries can decarbonise without compromising readiness and combat effectiveness, and why energy is both a necessity and a vulnerability in war. We also explore NATO's growing engagement with climate security, the rising competition for the critical minerals that green technologies depend on, and why the Arctic, the Baltic, and Northern Europe are now closely connected.

The conversation explores:

• Whether the Arctic is the new central theatre of military strategy
• How energy transitions create both resilience and vulnerability
• The role of critical minerals and resource competition in future conflict
• Why climate change is a present-day defence issue, not a future one

Dr Duncan Depledge is Senior Lecturer in Geopolitics and Security at Loughborough University, specialising in climate security, defence policy, and Arctic geopolitics. He has advised the Ministry of Defence, NATO, and the European Commission, and previously served as Special Adviser to the House of Commons Defence Committee for its inquiry into UK defence policy in the Arctic.

The International Risk Podcast brings together global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers to explore the forces transforming our world — from geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and one of Europe’s leading experts on international risk and crisis management. He advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across Europe on how to prepare for uncertainty, navigate crises, and build strategic resilience in an increasingly volatile world.

#Geopolitics #ClimateChange #Arctic #NATO #Defence #Military #HighNorth #Baltic #CriticalMinerals#EnergySecurity #China #ClimateSecurity #PoliticalRisk #InternationalRisk #Strategy

Tell us what you liked!

This could be the most controversial World Cup in history. In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen is joined by Professor Simon Chadwick, one of the world's leading experts on the geopolitical economy of sport, to unpack the politics behind the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Chadwick challenges the term "sportswashing," arguing it has been selectively applied by the global north while similar issues in co-hosts Mexico and Canada go largely unexamined. He explains why recent tournaments reveal the limits of soft power in sport, why hard power increasingly defines how host nations operate, and what the US, Mexico, and Canada are actually getting out of hosting. The conversation also covers dynamic ticket pricing, fan fears around ICE enforcement and border control, and whether FIFA's claim to political neutrality was ever true, particularly in light of the FIFA Peace Prize awarded to President Trump.

Simon Chadwick is Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School in Paris, and Director of its Global Executive MBA in Sport. His work examines the intersection of power, politics, money, and state interests in elite sport, and he has spent over 25 years researching and writing on football and the World Cup. He is the editor of The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State, the first book to define and explore how sport, geopolitics, and economics interact at a global level. Chadwick has worked extensively across the sport industry with clubs, governing bodies, commercial partners, and governments, including FIFA, UEFA, Barcelona Football Club, Adidas, and the organisers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical volatility and organised crime, to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders.

Tell us what you liked!

For more than six decades, USAID sat at the centre of the global humanitarian and development system. A little over a year ago, USAID became one of the first targets of the Trump administration’s DOGE campaign. Today, the hum and development sector is grappling with profound uncertainty at precisely the moment humanitarian needs are growing, especially with the rise in intrastate conflicts. What has the loss of USAID meant in practice? How are communities responding? And what does the future of international development look like in a world of shrinking aid budgets but rising humanitarian need?

And joining me to discuss this is Nicholas Enrich. He served as the former top global health official at USAID’s before becoming the acting assistant administrator for Global Health at USAID shortly before Trump’s second presidential inauguration. On March 2 2025 he was placed on administrative leave for exposing the Trump’s administration illegitimate and destructive dismantling of USAID which ended up going viral and his memo has been cited in a Supreme Court case on the legality of USAID’s dissolution. While the public release of his memos were ultimately not enough to save USAID, Enrich was one of the first government officials to publicly blow the whistle on DOGE’s reckless operations and inform other federal agencies of what was to come. Published in April Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical volatility and organised crime, to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders.

This episode was produced by Anna Kummelstedt

Tell us what you liked!

This episode hosts David Daley to examine the accelerating role of gerrymandering in shaping American democracy and what it reveals about the pressures facing modern electoral systems. The conversation explores his argument that democratic strain is driven not only by electoral cycles or individual political choices, but by the deliberate drawing of electoral maps that enables political actors to select their voters, weaken accountability, and reshape the incentives that underpin democratic competition. Daley argues that while gerrymandering has long been part of American politics, its contemporary form is defined by greater precision, scale, and the degree to which it is now enabled by advanced data systems and a permissive legal environment.

The episode examines how technological change has transformed redistricting into a highly sophisticated analytical process. Drawing on census data, historical voting patterns, and commercially available behavioural datasets, political operatives are now able to model electoral outcomes at the level of individual households. Advanced mapping software allows thousands of district configurations to be tested and refined before any boundaries are finalised, turning what was once a broadly geographic exercise into a data-driven process of political optimisation. This technological shift has strengthened the ability of parties to entrench advantage in an era of deep political polarisation.

A central focus of the conversation is the evolving legal framework governing redistricting in the United States. Daley highlights the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause, which removed federal courts from adjudicating partisan gerrymandering claims and effectively eliminated a key national constraint on extreme map-drawing. He also points to the longer-term weakening of Voting Rights Act enforcement following Shelby County v. Holder (2013), which dismantled the federal pre-clearance system. Taken together, these rulings have shifted oversight away from federal institutions and into a fragmented landscape of state courts, constitutions, and political processes, producing uneven constraints across the country and enabling more aggressive partisan behaviour in many jurisdictions.

David Daley is a journalist, political commentator, and bestselling author of Ratf**ked, a landmark study of partisan gerrymandering in the United States first published in 2010. His work examines how changes in redistricting strategy, electoral law, and political technology have reshaped American democracy over the past two decades. Daley has written extensively on the impact of map-drawing on representation, highlighting how advances in data analytics and shifts in judicial oversight have transformed gerrymandering from a relatively blunt political practice into a precise instrument of partisan advantage.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.

Subscribe for all our updates!

Tell us what you liked!

Tell us what you liked!

This episode hosts David Higgins to explore the complex and often misunderstood boundary between military operations, humanitarian action, and political stabilisation in modern conflict environments. Drawing on two decades of experience across the British Army, the United Nations, and geopolitical advisory work, we look at how different institutions operating in the same space can interpret the same conflict in fundamentally different ways, and how those differences shape outcomes on the ground.

The discussion focuses on David’s central argument that civil-military coordination frameworks still assume a level of clarity between “military space” and “civilian space” that increasingly no longer exists. While these distinctions were difficult but workable in conflicts such as Afghanistan and Somalia, today’s environments are far more fragmented, with blurred front lines, overlapping actors, and the increasing weaponisation of civilian domains including information, finance, and infrastructure. As a result, coordination mechanisms risk becoming procedurally active but operationally ineffective.

David Higgins is Head of Humanitarian Access and Civil-Military Coordination in Somalia for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He has spent twenty years working across the civil-military boundary as a British Army infantry officer, humanitarian and stabilisation adviser, and geopolitical analyst, including deployments to Helmand Province and roles across Afghanistan, Iraq, and East Africa. He previously served as Head of Geopolitical Analysis at M&C Saatchi World Services and as a reservist Lieutenant Colonel with the British Army’s 77th Brigade, and holds a research master’s focused on hybrid threats and UK national security.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.

Subscribe for all our updates!

Tell us what you liked!

Tell us what you liked!

This episode hosts Erez Levin to examine the shifting boundaries of acceptable public speech and what this reveals about the health of modern democratic societies. The conversation explores his central argument that liberal democracies depend not only on formal legal frameworks, but also on informal social guardrails, shared moral taboos that limit the public acceptability of overt hateful bigotry and dehumanising rhetoric. As these guardrails weaken in fragmented and algorithmically driven information environments, previously marginal forms of rhetoric can become more visible, more tolerated, and in some cases gradually normalised within mainstream political discourse.

Erez Levin is an advertising technologist and former Google employee whose work focuses on the intersection of digital media systems, online advertising incentives, and the health of public discourse. Through his “Holding the Line” project and writing on Substack, he examines how societies can maintain democratic resilience by reinforcing shared norms that constrain the social acceptability of overt hateful bigotry, while preserving space for open political debate.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.

Subscribe for all our updates!

Tell us what you liked!

In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Phil Booth, coordinator of medConfidential and a long-standing campaigner on medical confidentiality, patient consent and data governance, about what Palantir’s growing role in the NHS reveals about public trust, private technology companies and the data infrastructure increasingly underpinning the modern state.

The conversation examines the NHS Federated Data Platform, the use of Palantir Foundry and the wider risks that arise when critical public infrastructure becomes dependent on private technology companies. Phil argues that the central issue is not only whether the software works, but who controls it, how easily it can be scrutinised or replaced, and whether patients have any meaningful choice over how their health data is used.

Dominic and Phil discuss the limits of pseudonymisation, weaknesses in current opt-out arrangements, the commercial value created around NHS workflows and data systems, and the danger of long-term vendor lock-in. Phil reflects on earlier disputes surrounding care.data and the extraction of GP records, arguing that successive governments have repeatedly failed to treat public consent as a necessary condition of legitimate health-data use. They also explore how Palantir’s work with military, intelligence and policing organisations can create ethical and strategic tensions when the same company becomes deeply embedded in healthcare systems.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.

Subscribe for all our updates!

Tell us what you liked!

This episode with Ulf Laessing examines the recent escalation of unrest in Mali and what it reveals about the deeper fragmentation of authority across the central Sahel. The conversation explores how sustained insurgent pressure, weak state institutions, and shifting alliances between military governments and armed groups are reshaping the trajectory of the Malian state.

We discuss why Mali has become a central node in the wider Sahel crisis, how jihadist groups are adapting their operational strategies, and what the breakdown of territorial control means for regional spillover into Niger, Burkina Faso, and coastal West Africa. The episode also considers the role of external actors, including Russian security partnerships and regional bloc responses, in shaping both stability and instability.

Ulf Laessing is the Head of the Sahel Programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. His work focuses on governance, security dynamics, insurgency trends, and political risk across the central Sahel region.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.

Tell us what you liked!