📚 Political Risk Consulting: What Is It?
Put broadly, political risk consulting refers to a job focused on assessing the impact of political developments on organizations. This can range from analyzing how elections and changes of government — and the resulting shifts in policies — can impact organizations and industries, as well as how changes to legislation, regulation and taxation, or even foreign policy can also affect business environments. Learn more in this article … How to get into political and security risk consulting
Political risk analysts are often subject matter experts in a particular geography, and it’s common to find country-specific specialists who have an in-depth knowledge of the political landscape in a given area. Although concentrating in a regional area will certainly be useful, many analyst positions will focus on more than one area of the world. Factors that may be monitored by country risk specialists include political instability, terrorism, corruption, security threats, commodity risk, human rights, investment risk, economic indicators, regulatory developments, social trends, supply chain risks, labor laws, and currency convertibility.
The majority of Country Risk/Political Risk professionals start their careers in entry-level researcher, analyst, or consultant positions. In addition to positions at consulting firms and think tanks, you’ll also find political risk analysts on in-house teams at banks, investment management firms, credit rating agencies, insurance companies, technology firms, and energy companies. Finally, there’s a growing list of organizations that specialize in crisis management, brand reputation and communications that hire political risk professionals. Successful analysts excel at adapting their knowledge to new and uncertain situations. Excellent research, analysis, and decision making abilities as well as good communicative and writing skills are necessary to succeed in this field.
💼 Sample Employers + Job/Internship Titles
- Eurasia Group — Political Risk Training Program (PRTP) for entry-level hires; Intern, China and NE Asia position
- Albright Stonebridge Group — Internships for rising juniors, seniors, new grads or graduate students
- Stratfor — Writer-Editor entry-level positions
- U.S. International Development Finance Corporation — Many internships for graduate students; some, such as the External Affairs Internship, can take undergrads
- Kroll — Kroll Scholars Program, Cyber Emerging Talent Programme and internship opportunities for students
Other search terms you could use if you’re interested in this field: Research Analyst, Threat Intelligence Specialist, Corporate Security Analyst, Intelligence Analyst, Sovereign Risk Analyst, Political Advisor, Public Affairs Analyst
You can also consider looking at Daybook.com a job and internship search resource for political, policy, non-profit and remote jobs (try free for 30 days).
🌐 Professional Associations
- Young Professionals in Foreign Policy
- Women in International Security
- ASIS International
- Berne Union
- Global Association of Risk Professionals
- Society for Risk Analysis
