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
364 episodes
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 Fragile 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, Water, and Land for Generations 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...
Episode 349: Latin America's Violence Economy: Inequality, Growth, and State Capacity with Irvin Waller
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Irvin Waller about the often-overlooked role of interpersonal violence as a driver of international risk. While violence is frequently treated as a domestic iss...
Episode 348: Disinformation as Risk: Trust, Markets, and Influence with Thomas Barton
This episode with Thomas Barton, founder of the Council for Countering Online Disinformation (CCOD), explores the growing threat of online disinformation, examining how it has evolved from a political and media issue into a systemic risk for ma...
Episode 347: Cartels, State Power, and Security in Mexico with David Mora
This episode with David Mora examines the evolving landscape of organised crime in Mexico, moving beyond narratives focused solely on drug trafficking to explore the broader syst...
Episode 346: Life on the Frontier: Kaliningrad and the New Geography of European Security
In this episode, we host Dr Stanislaw Domaniewski to explore life on Europe’s eastern borders, focusing on Kaliningrad, the Polish-Russian frontier, and the politics of the European Union’s external edge. Drawing on his work on cross-bor...
Episode 345 The AI Bet: Huge Investment, Job Cuts, and Uncertain Returns
Today on The International Risk Podcast, we turn to the accelerating transformation of the global economy through artificial intelligence. Firms are making aggressive bets on future demand, and mid-market companies are grappling with r...
Episode 344: Israel's Dahiyeh Doctrine Returns to Lebanon with Paul Hefel-James
Today on The International Risk Podcast, we turn to Lebanon, where Israel’s invasion, the subsequent displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and political fracture are colliding in ways that could reshape Lebanon for years. As the c...
Episode 343: Canada’s Defence Dilemma: Sovereignty, NATO, and the U.S. Alliance with Norman Leach
In this episode, we host Norman Leach to explore whether Canada is entering a new era in defence policy. Drawing on his background in military history, defence commentar...
Episode 342: You Can't Kill an Idea: War, Power and 40 Years as a Foreign Correspondent with Humphrey Hawksley
The global landscape feels increasingly unsettled. Conflict in the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine to wider geoplitical, technological and climatic shifts, the world is going though a period of rapid change. At the same time, the nature of confl...
Episode 341: Taiwanese Politics, Shifting Attitudes, and the ‘China Question’
In this episode we host Ava Shen to unpack the dynamics of Taiwanese politics, the role of the DPP, KMT, and TPP, and how cross-strait tensions shape both domestic discourse and international perceptions. The conversation explores disinformatio...
Episode 340: Iran Escalates: How Geopolitical Shocks and the Strait of Hormuz Becomes an Organisational Crisis
In this episode, we host K. Campbell to examine how the escalating conflict with Iran should be understood not only as a military confrontation but as a wider risk event with implications for shipping, supply chains, critical infrastruct...
Episode 339: Disinformation, Information Disorder, and Democratic Resilience in a Fragmented Media Environment with Natalie Martin and Eliot Higgins
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Natalie Martin and Eliot Higgins about the growing impact of disinformation, digital media, and information disorder on global security and democratic re...