Geoeconomics

Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

‘Country risk’ is essentially about assessing the economic prospects of a nation holistically, within the broader legal and geopolitical soil without which institutional investors cannot grow their assets. The government of Qatar is now paying an incommensurate price for having thought it could defy forever the laws of geoeconomic gravity.

So universities like John^([sic]) Hopkins, Dartmouth, Kiel and Stanford are looking to expand their “geoeconomics” programmes (with the latter using machine learning for that end), along with entities such as the IMF, the Milken Institute and Atlantic Council.