Travel disruptions and restrictions are the top concern of UK security and risk managers among the expected effects of geopolitical conflict next year, according to Healix's 2027 Risk Radar Report, published on Thursday (29 October).
In a survey of 500 UK-based security and risk managers conducted in late June and early July, 18 per cent said disruption and regional travel restrictions likely would be the effect of geopolitical conflict that most affects their programme next year. That was more than those who expect adversarial cyber threats (16 per cent), rising global energy prices (15 per cent) and supply chain disruption (14 per cent) to affect their programmes most.
Nearly half of survey respondents said their organisation has experienced travel disruption over the past 12 months due to geopolitical conflict. Thirty-six per cent said they had employee safety incidents due to geopolitical disruption, and 32 per cent said they had carried out employee evacuations or relocations during that period.
The report noted that geopolitical conflict today generally has impacts well beyond the region directly affected.
"For many organisations, geopolitical crises now arrive through their workforce before they arrive through their balance sheet," according to the report. "A company may never operate in a conflict zone but still face disrupted travel, increased operating costs, cyber threats, regulatory complexity or reputational pressures because of events occurring thousands of miles away."