Connecting geopolitics, markets, and strategy

"It's the most volatile geopolitical environment since World War II," said Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer on the recent KPMG/NACD Quarterly Webcast, "but that doesn't mean that corporations should stay on the sideline."

On the Webcast, Bremmer joined Jose Rodriguez, Executive Director & Partner in Charge of KPMG's Audit Committee Institute, for a forty-minute tour of the current geopolitical landscape and considerations for business in the years ahead.

"Whether it's the nuclear ambitions of North Korea or Iran, the turmoil in Venezuela, the future of Brexit and NAFTA, or the Trump administration's policy agenda, geopolitics matter to business," said Rodriguez.

Specifically, Bremmer observes three macro-trends in the geopolitical environment:

1. In a "G-Zero" world, if the United States is no longer driving the global order and architecting global trade, and no longer driving global values, "then our allies are going to hedge away from us" and rogue states are going to be emboldened to do a lot more.
2. Challenges to leadership around the world are resulting in "protest votes," specifically in Europe where France's President Emmanuel Macron (whose favorability rating has been sinking) came in as an alternative candidate and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeing her party weakened, even in a strong economy.
3. The Chinese economic model continues to emerge as one that is very different from the United States' and the world's other liberal democracies. In fact, globalization does not appear to be contributing to political reform in China as many had expected.

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