Political Stability: A Location Advantage

Politische Stabilität als StandortvorteilScientific research and surveys keep emphasizing: Political instability poses an immediate and highly complex set of risks to business interests and well-being. Terrorism, major unrest, military operations and acts of sabotage unsettle investors, reduce the availability of qualified local workers and may cause significant damage to companies in all sectors. Even in non-violent forms, political risks need to be taken seriously. Protectionism, corruption and inhumane labor standards increase the risk of strikes and protests, undermine the efficiency of administration at the local and national level and hence complicate or even impede market entry for international companies. Moreover, they can cause inter- or even disruption of production cycles and lines of communication and transport. Securing the physical well-being of employees abroad and local staff and partners, usually tops the list of companies‘ concerns with regard to political risks. In times of crisis and instability, the risk of extortion and kidnappings, yet also the danger of being injured or even fall victim to political violence increases tremendously.

With CONIAS, you'll stay on the safe side...

RisikomanagementFor companies that understand international operations overwhelmingly through the lense of chances and opportunities, yet still want to be on the safe side, there are good news: Political violence does not appear from nowhere – research has shown that their occurrence and escalation can be predicted quite well. Conflicts are much more dynamic than we think, both in terms of escalation and de-escalation cycles as well as geographical spread and spillover. For more than 20 years, researchers at the University of Heidelberg have analyzed local dynamics of hundreds of conflicts worldwide. Since 2015, CONIAS Risk Intelligence transforms this data into knowledge and data-driven solutions for globally active companies and their partners. Since December 2019, CONIAS is part of Michael Bauer International GmbH and has its own offices in Heidelberg since 2020.

…when taking care of travel and expat security

For the Subnational Safety dataset (SUSAFE), CONIAS researchers systematically gather and assess data on conflict intensities in more than 3,800 distinct first level administrative entities every month. They also take into account key characteristics of the conflicts, such as their history, geographical extent, societal significance, and the occurrence of violence. In this manner, they generate a specific safety value for each administrative division, province or governorate, which is of great use for all applications and solutions for site monitoring and expat safety as well as travel security.

…when entering new market and evaluating suppliers

For the Subnational Resilience dataset (SURE), CONIAS researchers combine information of socio-economic well-being and development with insights on a region’s conflict history to develop a specific resilience value for more than 3,800 distinct first level administrative division of any state. Hence, SURE data is especially well suited for applications for strategic market entry planning as well as for the evaluation of production sites, suppliers and supply chain networks.

CONIAS provides context and informs not only about significant events yet integrates hundreds of ongoing conflicts and socio-economic factors to create tailor-made metrics of local stability.

CONIAS takes a closer look and evaluates more than 3,800 subnational entities worldwide.

CONIAS takes a more frequent look and generates individual and current values of immediate and long-term security – month by month.

CONIAS makes security scalable and quickly identifies production sites that are politically stable and can be successfully integrated into sustainable supply-chain networks.