Category Archives: Security

Securitizing the Critical Minerals Supply Chain

Posted on by Roan Aidane
An image of a large open-pit mining site with layers of soil and rock, featuring a large excavator extracting minerals.

A bucket-wheel excavator operating in a large open-pit mine, December 2012. Source: Pixabay.

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 9, September 2025

By Yan Bennett

For the purpose of securing American access to critical mineral supply chains and countering Chinese dominance in the sector, members of the Senate introduced the Critical Minerals Security Act in March of this year. During both his administrations, President Trump has made critical minerals a key component of his national policy. These developments show the strategic importance of critical minerals in the American economy and toward national security. 

 

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Boy Scouts and National Security: More Than Just Merit Badges

Posted on by Roan Aidane
A Boy Scout Troop walking on the deck of an aircraft carrier during the day.

Boy Scout Troop 1571 touring the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) in 2018, docked at Naval Base Kitsap–Bremerton, Washington State. Photo courtesy of the author.

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 8, August 2025

By Roan Aidane

Given geopolitical unrest and fluctuating enlistment rates of youths within the armed services, it is worthwhile to recall an institution that has a track record of effectively preparing youth for the American military while building America’s civic capacity: Scouting America (formerly the Boy Scouts of America, BSA). Scouting America stands as an underutilized resource in national security and military readiness. The death of the bills, H.R. 5622 in the House and S. 4499 as part of the “Youth Lead Act,” in the 118th Congress, underscores the undervaluation of Scouting America as an organization critical to U.S. national security.

 

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DeepSeek’s Collision Course with Xi

Posted on by Assistant Editor

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 3, March 2025

By Vaibhav Panwar

President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, 5 September 2024

President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, 5 September 2024. Source: President Paul Kagame via Flickr.

Fresh from the highs of DeepSeek’s ‘Sputnik moment’ in the AI race, Xi Jinping hosted a rare meeting with the titans of industry — notably the tech sector — in Beijing on February 16th. The event was attended by heads of BYD, Huawei, Deepseek, and other stalwarts. However, amidst these giants stood a tiny man with a big pedigree: Jack Ma. The tech baron from Hangzhou, who once pulled the strings of one of China’s largest tech conglomerates, The Alibaba group, is renowned for his influence. The company had its fingers in profitable pies like online wholesaling, e-commerce, and online transactions. Its fintech arm, Alipay, had racked up north of a billion users by the end of 2020. Ma was having a dream run: in October 2014, he found himself on the front page of newspapers around the world when the recently concluded Alibaba IPO breached the $25 billion mark – the biggest ever— leaving the world in awe of his role as the symbol of Chinese entrepreneurial spirit and China’s sprawling economy. Ma’s empire was firing on all cylinders; on single’s day 2019 — China’s answer to Black Friday — Alibaba and its subsidiaries did $38 billion in sales in 24 hours. Now, fast-forward to fall 2020: another Alibaba entity, ANT Group, was about to go public, all set to raise north of $35 billion based on the pre-subscriptions. The largest stock-offering in history was set to take place in Shanghai, creating a landmark moment for the Chinese economy, and cementing Ma’s status as one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. Beijing, however, was not so comfortable with the market consolidation of the tech giant from Hangzhou — or for that matter — the public criticism lobbed by Ma against Chinese banks at Shanghai’s Bund Conference. To nobody’s surprise — besides, perhaps his own — Jack Ma was called in for regulatory meetings by the Chinese central bank (PBOC) shortly after his remarks. Soon, the Chinese regulators would go on to pull the plug on the IPO right before the launch day, which was widely believed to be a disciplinary move against Ma over his comments. Ma was subsequently gone from the public eye, until he popped up in Japan a couple of years later.

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It’s Past Time to Secure the Internet

Posted on by Assistant Editor

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 12, No. 11, November 2024 

The image depicts a world globe focusing on America.

Nick Aldwin via Flickr

By Tim Sell

If we’ve learned anything in the last three years, it’s that open borders don’t work. They put American citizens at risk. Why haven’t we learned, over the last thirty years, that an open Internet causes the same problems? I read about problems everyday from Russian hackers and Iranian agents creating election havoc and stealing identities and money. About a year ago, I experienced bank fraud and identity theft. When I reported this to my local police department, I was told nothing could be done,
as the attack came from “overseas” on the Internet.

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A review of Political Risk: Facing the Threat of Global Insecurity in the Twenty-First Century

Posted on by Assistant Editor

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 12, No. 6, June 2024

Ndzalama Mathebula
University of Johannesburg
The image shows the cover of a book titled "Political Risk: Facing the Threat of Global Insecurity in the Twenty-First Century." The authors listed at the top are Condoleezza Rice and Amy Zegart. The cover features a globe, cracked open in the middle, revealing a fragmented and divided world map. At the bottom, there is a quote from Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, praising the book as "Smart. Informative. Overdue." The overall design is clean, with a predominantly white background and blue and black text.

Source: Weidnfeld&Nicolson

The book Political Risk: Facing the Threat of Global Insecurity in the Twenty-First Century by Condoleezza Rice and Amy Zegart provides a remarkable overview of the political risk discipline, demonstrating its evolution and growing literature. The ten-chapter book is carefully curated to identify the importance of stakeholders understanding political risk and its evolution in the present century. The writings presented in the book are relevant, but not limited to, businesspersons, government actors, international relations practitioners, corporate personnel, policymakers, organizations, and students – especially given the rate at which the world is changing.

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