Problem Definition

In the context of Iraqi war, the risks of more terrorist attacks on the businesses together with some other organizations would probably remain on the agenda for quite a long time. Consequently, business managers have been attempting to re-state their risk assessments strategies within the extensive and larger political context than they encompassed previously.

A short review of the security environment that prevails across the globe shows that economic factors appear much larger than exclusively politically-motivated violence. However, the increase in transnational crime and trafficking everything from the arms to humans are the symptoms of what most analysts now consider as the downside of globalization.

Opening global doors to the global trade, financial transfers as well as the movement of individuals who have not only worked in increasing the global business opportunities and magnificence, but also to challenge the rules of law and the trust on which the international diplomacy together with trading relations have conventionally been based.

Justification for Problem Definition

There are many insinuations that arise from this. The first one being the boundaries of what may have been believed as locally-based terrorism or resistance can migrate with an alarming speed through networks that are already established for the type of criminal activity cited above. Secondly, the effects of trans-national crime on the markets and supply chains can’t be disregarded only because the threat of terrorism appears to be more immediate or abrupt.

Terrorism can essentially strike anywhere at anytime, though the fact is that it does not. The problem is that when it actually does, far more than the immediate victims get affected, thus provoking the prolonged shock waves, trepidation and failures of confidence hard to allay through simple reassurances.

However, for the business world, we find that the most immediate effect has been felt in increasing insurance premiums together with the dusting off of text books on the operational risk management that only a quarter of the organizations had put in place had before the 9/11 incidence. In brushing up on the direct security measures, developments have definitely been made over the past eighteen months (Preston, 2006). For investor morale and self-confidence, the fall-out from Enron, the WorldCom together with the Anderson effect on communal accountability have compounded the pre-existing insecurities.

Alternative Courses of Action

To decide how large or wide a scope to focus on, it is clear that the basis and causes of political risks are nearly completely beyond the control of single organizations. If only the businesses operate directly in unsteady environments, they will have to monitor and deal with local political sensitivities, not least due to the damaging effects to the status of being considered to be unsuccessful in the corporate social responsibilities.

Nonetheless, in this respect, it should be reflected on the arguments or Mary Robinson, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the role that business has to and could be playing in protecting the human rights. Her suggestions are not just based on the higher expectations of the corporate social responsibility, but on the increasing public views that businesses can never again claim to be incapable and ineffective in the shaping of the business environments, that is, both political and physical under which the operate.

What can actually be done at the HQ level in dealing with these more immediate sensitivities is the concentration of more positive efforts on the establishment of a two-way communications with the pertinent public organizations. However, an organization thinking positively instead of responsively about the type of matters that may affect their businesses is well equipped in deciding for itself if they have to be involved in the current strategic reviews. This implies establishing continued relations with the officials in the government departments allowing for the expression of the kind of business concerns that the public officials must be aware of.

This type of relationship is now well-established already in the global corporate with the long-established public affairs departments. The new environment suggests that when planning the strategies for where they should be in about three to four years’ time, smaller, locally and nationally-based organizations will also have to begin thinking in more international or global terms.