To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk

by John C. Hulsman

Ten lessons from history on the dos and don’ts of analyzing political riskOur baffling new multipolar world grows ever more complex, desperately calling for new ways of thinking, particularly when it comes to political risk. To Dare More Boldly provides those ways, telling the story of the rise of political risk analysis, both as a discipline and a lucrative high-stakes industry that guides the strategic decisions of corporations and governments around the world. It assesses why recent predictions have gone so wrong and boldly puts forward ten analytical commandments that can stand the test of time.Written by one of the field's leading practitioners, this incisive book derives these indelible rules of the game from a wide-ranging and entertaining survey of world history. John Hulsman looks at examples as seemingly unconnected as the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Third Crusade, the Italian Renaissance, America's founders, Napoleon, the Battle of Gettysburg, the British Empire, the Kaiser's Germany, the breakup of the Beatles, Charles Manson, and Deng Xiaoping's China. Hulsman makes sense of yesterday's world, and in doing so provides an invaluable conceptual tool kit for navigating today's.To Dare More Boldly creatively explains why political risk analysis is vital for business and political leaders alike, and authoritatively establishes the analytical rules of thumb that practitioners need to do it effectively.

Genres: Politics

324 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 3, 2018

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is well-written and offers good lessons for following and analyzing international events. Unfortunately, the quick pace of the book means that the historical examples chose to illustrate these lessons in each chapter cannot do justice to the complexity of the true events. This is particularly evident in the examination of the security dilemma facing the US and China in the East and South China Seas. Additionally, the ten lessons merely restate principles of good analysis and logical fallacies that any good analyst learns to avoid as a matter of tradecraft.

Despite being a book about political risk, Huisman does not describe how political risk analysts can use these lessons to improve their analysis and better serve their clients. It is one thing to understand how mistakes can be made, but it is another matter to integrate them into one's analysis.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utmärkt sammanfattning av IR-teori, med hjälp av historiska exempel. Kanske inte speciellt nya tankar, men likväl välformulerade. Jag kommer i framtiden att rekommendera denna som en envolymskurs i IR.

[Chase Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pithy prose with some odd digressions. The fundamental insights are largely those of other structural realists. The real value is in the concision of some useful principles, but not functionally useful to those wishing to enter into geopolitical risk analysis in their own right. That is perhaps not a mark against Hulsman however, as good strategic thinking can only be taught to a certain extent.

[Carolina Liechtenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very clear and concise. I came out of reading it with a new perspective on the pitfalls of waving off eccentric or strange geopolitical players. In today's world, we must study those players we might ignore as crazy.