Geopolitical Risk and Global Finance

Dear Colleagues,

Subtitle: The Impact of War, Trade Barriers, and Political Uncertainty on Financial Markets and Stability

Recently, political risk has been rising sharply, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have reshaped regional and global alliances, with ripple effects for energy security, commodity markets, and investor sentiment. At the same time, the new U.S. administration’s turn towards more protectionist trade policies, combined with a broader global retreat from multilateralism, has intensified barriers to trade and investment. Taken together, these developments have disrupted global supply chains to an unprecedented degree, exposing vulnerabilities in production networks and financial interdependence that had long been taken for granted.

Against this backdrop, we propose a Special Issue devoted to examining the impact of these overlapping shocks on global financial markets, trade flows, multinational enterprises, and consumers. Contributions could address, among others, the following themes:

• Global financial markets: How geopolitical risk is priced into asset returns, volatility, and capital flows; the effects on exchange rates, sovereign debt, and emerging markets.
• Supply chains and trade: The reconfiguration of global production networks, re-shoring and friend-shoring trends, and the resilience of firms to geopolitical shocks.
• Energy and commodities: The impact of wars and sanctions on energy prices, security of supply, and the broader commodity markets.
• Consumers and households: How inflation, uncertainty, and disruptions to trade and energy markets affect consumer behavior, welfare, and inequality across regions.
• Policy and institutions: The responses of central banks, international organizations, and national governments to heightened uncertainty and the implications for future global economic governance.
• Investment decision under political uncertainty: How escalating geopolitical tensions and the resulting political risks affect investment choices in both the public and private sector.
• Protectionist trade policies and labour markets: How protectionist trade measures—such as tariffs, quotas, and import restrictions—reshape domestic labour markets and influence patterns of economic migration.

We welcome contributions from both academia and industry practitioners, as one of the key objectives of this Special Issue is to foster dialogue between theory and practice. We seek to bridge scholarly research with real-world perspectives from the financial sector, multinational corporations, policy institutions, and supply chain management. Both empirical studies and analytically rigorous theoretical work are encouraged. Submissions should be characterized by the formal application of theory and/or the careful, robust analysis of data, ensuring that the research advances our understanding of how geopolitical and trade-related risks shape the global economy.

This Special Issue thus aims to provide a platform for rigorous and policy-relevant research, fostering an exchange of ideas between academics and practitioners on one of the most pressing challenges of our time: understanding and navigating the economic consequences of geopolitical shocks in an increasingly fragmented global order.

Prof. Dr. Anurag N Banerjee
Dr. Kamlesh Kumar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• economics of political risk
• import tariffs
• trade ban
• industry supply chain
• financial markets
• geopolitical shocks
• energy markets
• inflation
• empirical analysis
• econometrics
• data analytics
• theoretical modeling