The International Risk Podcast
Welcome to The International Risk Podcast — the premier destination for high-level insights into global risk dynamics. Hosted by Dominic Bowen, an accomplished senior advisor, each episode delivers expert analysis and actionable intelligence on today’s most pressing international risks. From geopolitical tensions and economic upheavals to cybersecurity threats and environmental challenges, we bring clarity to the complex risks shaping our world.
Tailored for CEOs, Board Members, senior managers, and risk professionals, our weekly episodes are essential listening for those making strategic decisions in volatile environments. With distinguished guests from diverse sectors and geographies — including renowned industry experts, policymakers, and thought leaders — we provide a multidimensional perspective, equipping you with insights to stay ahead of emerging threats and capitalize on new opportunities.
Our host, Dominic Bowen, is a senior business leader, and Partner at 2Secure where he is Head of Strategic Advisory and leads a team of senior management consultants and advisors.
Join us for engaging, thought-provoking conversations that go beyond the headlines. Stay informed, stay ahead, and transform the way you perceive and manage international risks. The International Risk Podcast is not just a podcast; it’s is crucial listening for today's leaders.
Episodes
375 episodes
Episode 374: The Illusion of Separation: Civil-Military Coordination in Modern Conflict with David Higgins
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 ...
Episode 373: Social Norms and Political Violence with Erez Levin
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 d...
Episode 372: Who Controls Your Health Data? Palantir, the NHS and the Risks of Digital Dependency
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Phil Booth, coordinator of medConfidential a...
Episode 371: Mali at the Breaking Point: Insurgency, Military Rule, and the Future of the Sahel with Ulf Laessing
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 ins...
Episode 370: The Global Race to Detect the Next Outbreak: Ebola, Hantavirus, and the Politics of Public Health Response with Professor Meru Sheel
In this episode, we host Professor Meru Sheel to examine whether global health systems are prepared for the next major infectious-disease outbreak. Drawing on her work in infectious-disease epidemiology, vaccine research, emergency prepa...
Episode 369: Reopening the Strait: Hormuz, Sea Power, and the Fragility of Global Trade with Dr Emma Salisbury
This episode with Dr. Emma Salisbury explores how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz exposed the vulnerabilities of the global maritime system, revealing how a regional conflict can rapidly become a global economic and security crisis. The con...
Episode 368: Shadow Policing and Transnational Repression: China’s Global Campaign Against Critics with Sam Goodman
In this episode, we host Sam Goodman to explore China’s global campaign of transnational repression, shadow policing, and pressure against critics abroad. Drawing on his work on Hong Kong, UK-China relations, sanctions, the BN(O) communi...
Episode 367: From Rodents to Cruise Ships: Hantavirus and the Risks of a Hyperconnected World with Dr Giulia Gallo
In this episode, we host Dr Giulia Gallo to explore hantavirus, the recent MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, and why a rare but serious infectious disease can generate global headlines without necessarily becoming a pandemic-style threat....
Episode 366: The UAE Exit from OPEC: Geopolitics, Energy Security, and the Shifting Gulf Balance
The Gulf is entering a period of profound geopolitical and economic uncertainty. As tensions around the Strait of Hormuz continue and global energy markets face mounting pressure, the United Arab Emirates has taken the extraordinary decision to...
Episode 365: After the Fighting Stops: Landmines and the Cost of Conflict with James Denselow from The HALO Trust
In this episode we explore the lasting impact of landmines. Across Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and dozens of other conflict-affected countries, landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to kill, injure, and displace civilians long af...
Episode 364: Water Weaponisation in Modern Conflict with Dr. Marcus King
Across Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and now the Gulf, water systems are no longer just collateral damage. They are becoming targets and tools of coercion. Dams, desalination plants, pumping stations, rivers, reservoirs, and elect...
Episode 363: Physical Security and Workplace Safety with Michael Julian
This episode with Michael Julian explores the growing realities of workplace violence, active threats, and organisational preparedness in an increasingly volatile secu...
Episode 362: The Amazon Rainforest, Gold Mining, and the Development Dilemma in Suriname with John Goedschalk
This episode hosts John Goedschalk to examine the relationship between environmental sustainability, economic development, and long-term climate resilience in the Amazon rainforest and the Guiana Shield. The conversation explores why the forest...
Episode 361: How World Wars Begin: Great Power Competition and the Global Order with Jake Clapham
This episode with Jake Clapham explores the growing fragility of the international order, examining how institutional collapse, strategic miscalculation, and great power rivalry can transform regional crises into global conflicts. Drawing on th...
Episode 360: Hungary After Orbán: Democratic Reset or Political Reconfiguration in Europe? with Zsuzsanna Szelényi
This episode with Zsuzsanna Szelényi explores Hungary's dramatic political transformation following the end of Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule, examining how an entrenched illiberal system was dismantled through democratic means and what thi...
Episode 359: Conflict Pollution: How Modern War Damages Climate with Doug Weir
This episode hosts Doug Weir from the Conflict and Environment Observatory to examine the environmental consequences of modern warfare and the wider ecological risks created by armed conflict. The conversation explores how conflict gener...
Episode 358: The Long Arm of Tehran: Proxies, Criminals and State-Backed Threats with Edmund Fitton-Brown
In this episode, we host Edmund Fitton-Brown to explore how Iran projects power beyond its borders through proxies, criminal networks, intelligence services, and deniable operations. Drawing on his experience as a former British Ambassad...
Episode 357: 100 Years to Extinction: Dr Peter Solomon on Emerging Technologies and the Risks that Come with Them
This episode hosts Dr Peter Solomon to examine the widening gap between our capacity to build transformative technologies and our ability to govern them, with a particular focus on the international risks that emerge when innovation outpaces re...
Episode 356: War on the Climate: Conflict, Carbon, and the Hidden Cost of War in Iran with Benjamin Neimark and Frederick Otu-Larbi
This episode hosts Benjamin Neimark and Frederick Otu-Larbi to examine the environmental and climate consequences of modern warfare, with a particular focus on the ongoing conflict involving Iran and its rapidly escalating global ...
Episode 355: Leading under Pressure in a More Volatile and Compounded Crises Environment with Jon-Paul Gabriele
Business leaders are operating in a harsher, more expensive, and more politically volatile environment, where geopolitics is now showing up directly in fuel costs, inflation, supply chains, capital markets, alliance structures, and executive de...
Episode 354: Beyond Strikes: The Ripple Effects of the US–Iran Conflict with Dr Jamie Shea
This episode with Professor Jamie Shea explores how contemporary conflict is no longer confined to the battlefield but unfolds across multiple interconnected domains, generating effects that extend far beyond the immediate theatre of operations...
Episode 353: Terrorism Rewired: AI, Crime-Terror Networks and the New Global Threat Landscape with Dr Colin P. Clarke
In this episode, we host Dr Colin P. Clarke to explore how terrorism is evolving in an era of AI, organised crime, proxy warfare, and great power competition. Drawing on decades of work on terrorism, insurgency, illicit finance, and poli...
Episode 352: Inside the Ransomware Economy: Incentives, Governance, and Risk with Anja Shortland
This episode hosts Professor Anja Shortland, returning to the podcast following her previous appearance in 2021, to examine how ransomware has evolved into a sophisticated and highly organised form of cybercrime, operating as a glo...
Episode 351: Climate, Infrastructure, and Nuclear Risk: Rethinking Strategic Stability with Dr Florian Krampe
This episode with Dr Florian Krampe explores how climate change is no longer a peripheral environmental issue but a central factor reshaping global security. The conversation examines how environmental shifts are already degrading critical mili...
Episode 350: The Human Blind Spot in Cybersecurity with Robert Siciliano
In this episode, we host Robert Siciliano to examine why the biggest vulnerability in cybersecurity is so often not the technology, but the people using it. Drawing on decades of work in fraud prevention, identity protection, and securit...