Navigating Economic Weaponisation: What Risk Managers Should Prioritise in 2026

Global interconnectivity has created significant opportunities for organisations, but it has also exposed them to new and complex risks. As technological, political and economic systems become more deeply connected, organisations can no longer treat risk management as a reactive function. It must become a core pillar of strategy, leadership and organisational resilience.

The past year has marked a decisive shift in the global risk landscape, driven by rising protectionism and the escalation of economic weaponisation. Economic weaponisation refers to the strategic use of trade, financial networks, supply chains, tariffs, sanctions, investment controls and logistics infrastructure as tools of geopolitical influence.

For risk managers, this environment demands a broader and more proactive mandate. They are no longer simply expected to identify and respond to threats. They must help organisations anticipate disruption, protect trust, strengthen resilience and identify opportunities in an increasingly volatile operating environment.

Why economic weaponisation matters for risk managers

The World Economic Forum’s 2026 Global Risks Report describes the current environment as an “age of competition”, marked by fragmentation, trade tensions and growing AI-related risks. It also identifies geo-economic confrontation as a leading risk, as countries increasingly use economic tools to pursue geopolitical objectives.

For organisations, this creates a more uncertain and interconnected risk environment. Tariffs, sanctions, export controls, supply chain disruption, cyber threats, misinformation and societal polarisation can no longer be managed in isolation. They form part of a wider enterprise risk management challenge.

As volatility increases, organisational resilience becomes more than a defensive capability. It becomes a strategic differentiator.

Key risk priorities for 2026

Risk managers should focus on the following priority areas to help their organisations respond to political, economic, technological and regulatory shocks.

1. Strengthen geopolitical risk monitoring

Organisations need continuous monitoring of geopolitical developments affecting key markets, suppliers, customers and supply chains.

This includes identifying exposure to politically unstable regions, assessing the potential impact of tariffs or sanctions, and reducing overreliance on single markets or logistics routes. Strong geopolitical risk monitoring enables executives to make faster, better-informed decisions when confronted with disruption.

2. Address misinformation and reputation risk

Misinformation and disinformation are now systemic enterprise risks. They can damage stakeholder trust, undermine governance and create reputational harm at speed.

Organisations should invest in communication governance systems, real-time information verification protocols and reputation risk management frameworks. These measures can help detect and respond to misinformation before it escalates into a wider trust crisis.

3. Strengthen cybersecurity and AI governance

Cyber insecurity and the unintended consequences of AI adoption are now central risk concerns for organisations.

Risk managers should work with technology, legal, compliance and executive teams to improve cybersecurity maturity, strengthen threat detection and response, and develop transparent AI governance frameworks. These frameworks should address ethical, operational and regulatory considerations.

Strong cyber and AI governance reduces the likelihood and impact of breaches, protects sensitive data and supports regulatory compliance.

4. Use data-driven insight for proactive risk management

In a multipolar geopolitical environment, organisations need better risk intelligence.

Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and real-time data can help organisations assess risk exposure, understand interdependencies and anticipate disruption. The key is to translate complex risk information into actionable intelligence for executive decision-makers.

This enables organisations to reallocate resources earlier, respond faster and turn emerging risks into manageable scenarios rather than full-blown crises.

5. Recognise societal polarisation as an enterprise risk

Societal polarisation is often underestimated as a business risk. Deepening divides along economic, ideological and demographic lines can affect policy stability, consumer sentiment, workforce cohesion and market predictability.

Organisations should embed dialogue, inclusion and adaptive leadership into their culture. They should also build deliberate partnerships with civil society, business networks and communities to strengthen trust and reduce the likelihood of internal conflict, labour disruption or community backlash.

Building a stronger enterprise risk management agenda

The risks facing organisations in 2026 are deeply interdependent. This means risk management must be integrated across the organisation and supported by a cohesive enterprise risk management framework.

An effective ERM agenda should include risk capacitation, clear reporting structures, scenario analysis, mitigation planning and cross-functional oversight. Organisations should also establish risk oversight committees that bring together leaders from strategy, finance, operations, technology, human capital, legal, compliance and communications.

Collaboration with stakeholders, regulators and industry bodies will also be essential to building collective resilience.

From shock absorption to strategic advantage

Organisations need strategies that allow them to navigate uncertainty with greater confidence. This requires equipping people with the ability to anticipate risk, manage complexity and respond with agility when new opportunities emerge.

In an era where economic tools are increasingly deployed as instruments of power, risk managers cannot afford to take a narrow or reactive view of their mandate. By integrating geopolitical foresight, trust and reputation safeguards, robust cyber and AI governance, and data-driven insight into a cohesive ERM agenda, organisations can move beyond simply absorbing shocks towards identifying and realising new opportunities.

Those that invest in collaborative, cross-functional risk oversight, while deliberately building inclusive and adaptive cultures, will be best positioned not only to withstand the turbulence of the age of competition, but to shape their own strategic trajectory within it.

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Building a Resilient Organisation

Sun TZU, in The Art of War writes that:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

This quotation highlights the importance of understanding our organisations and the environments in which we operate.

• Do we know our vulnerabilities?
• Do we know our capacity and capabilities to overcome threats?
• Do we know our strengths and the opportunities we can harness?
• Do we have an idea how to be resilient in the face of risk?

In an era of accelerating change, we need to be resilient as organisations, communities and individuals.  Disciplines such as Risk Management (RM) and Business Continuity Management (BCM) form a key part in many organisations’ governance frameworks, but often these are done only for compliance purposes as a “tick box” exercise and very seldom provide value nor would enable resilience.   Our organisations also need to have the right culture to embed these structures and to be confident in being responsive to risks and seizing opportunities, being responsive to market changes, regulatory changes, stakeholder expectations and achieving dependable results while dealing with the expected and unexpected.

We need to know the enemy and know ourselves.  We need to understand external and internal factors which could influence the risks and opportunities that we may face. There are a wide range of resources that we can use to understand these factors that could have an influence on our organisations. In addition to organisation or industry information, media and reports, other publications can assist us.   Annually, the World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes a Global Risk Report, as well as the Institute of Risk Management and Allianz Commercial.  In our risk discussions and assessments, we need to use available information to determine areas that may influence our risk profile.  Some of the key issues highlighted by these reports include:

• Misinformation and disinformation
• Rapidly accelerating technological change
• Economic uncertainty or collapse
• Geopolitical tensions and active hostility
• Failure of infrastructure and services
• Record-breaking extreme weather and climate change
• Cost of living pressures, increasing inflation and interest rates
• Criminality and corruption
• Unemployment
• Energy and water supply shortages
• Multiplicity of different futures – A polycrisis

We need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  Resilience is an integrating concept that allows multiple risks, shocks and stresses and their impacts to be considered together in a particular context.  Resilience is about unity and cohesion and collaboration with a common vision and desire to achieve positive outcomes.

These are some of the characteristics of resilience that we need to establish:

• Maturity plus Culture – Maturity in risk management and our risk culture go hand in hand. A good risk culture without risk maturity will see our teams being incredibly committed, but then do not have sufficient direction, structure and support.   But, maturity without the right risk culture will see us back at ticking the boxes for compliance purposes.
• No brushing issues under the carpet – We need to be vigilant about our organisation, its performance and potential problems and be proactive. Constant monitoring and communication and timeously reporting early warning signals enables us to manage issues.
• ‘n Boer maak ‘n plan – Our teams need to be encouraged and rewarded for using their knowledge in creative ways to solve new and existing problems, and for utilising innovative and creative approaches to developing solutions.
• No jumping ship – A resilient organisation protects its people and has their well-being as a priority. Emotionally stable people and strong leadership will see our employees working together for the common good. Getting the job done must be balanced with the need to protect our own families.
• Be elastic – A resilient organisation learns, develops, grows and stretches and is then able to bounce back. Investment in our people, processes, systems, the way we operate, will show us to me more adaptive, elastic and flexible. We need to learn from our own experiences as well as those in our networks.
• No red tape – Our teams need to have the appropriate authority to respond to crisis events, without red tape or bureaucracy to create delays. Staff need to be involved and able to make decisions and add value based on their knowledge and skills.
• Break down the silos: We cannot be hampered by divisive social, cultural and behavioural barriers, which are most often caused by poor communication. Disjointed, disconnected and detrimental ways of working do not enable resilience. We need to work together, sometimes even in partnership with other organisations and stakeholders.

There is a road to resilience that we need to follow.  We cannot just wave a magic wand and have a fully implemented and embedded Risk Management programme that mitigates all risks and seizes all opportunities. It also does not mean that we are not going to experience difficulty or distress.

Through effective RM and BCM and a mature risk culture, we can capacitate ourselves and our organisations to be able to collaborate and discover practical and creative solutions to respond to challenges and be better able to identify and pursue new opportunities. All enabling organisational resilience.

Vanessa Thurlwell – Vanessa stands at the forefront of risk management as a Senior Risk Consultant at Mondial Business and Risk Consultants and a director of Mondial Knowledge Solutions. She is also a faculty member on the SBS-ED Risk Management Online Programme.

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