Where is the event taking place?

The event is scheduled to take place in Copenhagen, DNK.

What is the primary focus of this event?

The event's primary focus is on the intersection of geopolitics and business security, exploring how global political dynamics impact commercial operations.

Geopolitics & Business Security

Name: Geopolitics & Business Security
Start: 2026-04-14T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-04-14T00:00:00Z
Location: Copenhagen

Apr 14, 2026Copenhagen, DenmarkIn-person

Registration open

This event, held in Copenhagen, DNK, focuses on the intersection of geopolitics and business security. It aims to provide insights into how global political dynamics directly impact commercial operations and strategic decision-making. The discussions will likely cover a broad spectrum of geopolitical factors that influence the security landscape for businesses operating internationally. The event serves as a platform for professionals to understand and navigate the complexities of the current global environment, emphasizing the need for robust strategies to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities arising from geopolitical shifts. It underscores the critical link between international relations and corporate resilience.

Committees & topics

UNGA – DISEC
Disarmament & International Security Committee (DISEC): Emerging Technologies and Arms Control
UNHRC
United Nations Human Rights Council: Rights in the Age of Generative AI and Climate Displacement
IMF
International Monetary Fund: Sovereign Debt, Financial Stability, and Geoeconomic Fragmentation
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC): Cross-Border Data Flows, Corporate Espionage, and National Security
Historic Crisis Committee (HCC)
Historic Crisis Committee (HCC): The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962
International Press
International Press Corps: Reporting Conflict, Disinformation, and Press Freedom
Security Council
United Nations Security Council: Sudan's War and Norms for Cyber Operations

Why it matters

In an increasingly interconnected world, geopolitical events have immediate and far-reaching consequences for businesses. Supply chain disruptions, regulatory changes, and shifts in international trade policies, all stemming from geopolitical developments, can significantly affect profitability and operational stability. Understanding these dynamics is no longer a niche concern for a few large corporations but a fundamental requirement for any business with international exposure.

The event's focus on business security within this geopolitical context highlights the proactive measures companies must adopt. This includes not only physical security but also cybersecurity, data integrity, and the protection of intellectual property against state-sponsored threats or geopolitical rivalries. The discussions will likely explore how businesses can build resilience and adapt their strategies to withstand external pressures.

Furthermore, the event emphasizes the importance of strategic foresight. By analyzing geopolitical trends, businesses can anticipate potential challenges and opportunities, allowing for more informed investment decisions, market entry strategies, and risk management protocols. This proactive approach is crucial for maintaining competitive advantage and ensuring long-term sustainability in a volatile global landscape.

How to prepare

To prepare for this event, participants should consider reviewing fundamental concepts of international relations and their impact on economic stability. A strong understanding of how political decisions in one region can create ripple effects across global markets will be beneficial. Familiarity with various forms of geopolitical risk, such as political instability, trade wars, and sanctions, will also enhance the learning experience.

Participants might also benefit from examining case studies of businesses that have successfully navigated complex geopolitical environments, as well as those that have faced significant challenges. This can provide practical context for the theoretical discussions. Understanding the principles of risk assessment and mitigation in a business context, particularly as they relate to external political factors, will be key.

Consider exploring the Model Diplomat lesson on "Dynamic Analysis" to better understand how to assess rapidly evolving international situations. Additionally, a review of "Engagement Strategies" can provide valuable context on how businesses and governments interact in the face of geopolitical challenges, offering insights into proactive measures for risk mitigation and opportunity identification. The lesson "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" and "Stakeholder Mapping Workshop" can also be useful in identifying and understanding the various actors influencing geopolitical and business security landscapes.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Denmark

As the host nation, DNK likely emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and multilateralism in addressing global security challenges that impact trade and business.

Role in topic

DNK, as a developed economy with significant international trade, has a vested interest in stable global geopolitical conditions and secure business environments. Its perspective would likely center on navigating global complexities through diplomacy and robust risk management.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

UNGA – DISEC

Disarmament & International Security Committee (DISEC): Emerging Technologies and Arms Control

The First Committee of the UN General Assembly, known as DISEC, has historically addressed nuclear non-proliferation, conventional arms transfers, and confidence-building measures. Since the end of the Cold War, its agenda has expanded to cover dual-use technologies, with recent sessions dominated by debates over lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), cyber operations against critical infrastructure, and the militarization of outer space. The Group of Governmental Experts on LAWS, convened under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, has met repeatedly since 2017 but has not produced a binding instrument, with a coalition of states pushing for prohibition while major military powers prefer non-binding principles. Parallel debates over outer space have intensified following anti-satellite (ASAT) tests by China (2007), India (2019), and Russia (2021), and amid the rapid proliferation of dual-use commercial constellations. Negotiations on a Treaty on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) remain stalled at the Conference on Disarmament. In cyberspace, the Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs has produced consensus reports affirming the applicability of international law, but states disagree sharply on attribution, sovereignty, and permissible countermeasures. DISEC's current challenge is to translate these fragmented processes into coherent norms before technological facts on the ground outpace diplomacy.

Key players

UNHRC

United Nations Human Rights Council: Rights in the Age of Generative AI and Climate Displacement

The Human Rights Council was created by General Assembly Resolution 60/251 in 2006, replacing the discredited Commission on Human Rights. It operates through the Universal Periodic Review, Special Procedures, and thematic resolutions, and its mandate has steadily expanded into emerging issues. The 2021 recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (Resolution 48/13, reinforced by GA Resolution 76/300 in 2022) marked a major normative shift, particularly for populations displaced by climate change, who fall outside the 1951 Refugee Convention's definition. More recently, the rapid deployment of generative AI systems has raised acute concerns about freedom of expression under ICCPR Article 19, non-discrimination, privacy, and labor rights. The OHCHR B-Tech project and 2024 reports by the High Commissioner have called for human-rights-based guardrails on AI development, deployment, and content moderation. Member states are now debating whether to establish a Special Rapporteur on AI, whether existing treaty bodies suffice, and how to bind private technology firms whose decisions increasingly shape public discourse. These debates unfold against persistent geopolitical contestation over the Council's country-specific mandates and the principle of universality.

Key players

IMF

International Monetary Fund: Sovereign Debt, Financial Stability, and Geoeconomic Fragmentation

The IMF was established at Bretton Woods in 1944 to safeguard international monetary cooperation, surveil exchange-rate stability, and provide balance-of-payments assistance. Its tools — Article IV consultations, Stand-By Arrangements, the Extended Fund Facility, and the Resilience and Sustainability Trust created in 2022 — have evolved alongside successive crises, from the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s to the 2008 global financial crisis and the post-pandemic shock. Today the Fund confronts a debt distress wave: roughly 60 percent of low-income countries are at high risk of or in debt distress, with restructurings under the G20 Common Framework proving slow and contested, notably in Zambia, Ghana, and Sri Lanka. The Fund's policy debates now extend beyond traditional macro stabilization to geoeconomic fragmentation, the role of China as the largest bilateral creditor to developing economies, sanctions enforcement, central bank digital currencies, and climate-linked lending. Quota reform — long demanded by emerging markets to better reflect global GDP — advanced incrementally with the 16th General Review in 2023 but did not rebalance voting shares. The result is a governance system under strain, where the legitimacy of conditionality, the adequacy of Special Drawing Right allocations, and the coordination of creditor committees are all simultaneously in question.

Key players

Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC): Cross-Border Data Flows, Corporate Espionage, and National Security

Joint Parliamentary Committees are an instrument of legislative oversight, most prominently used in the Indian and Westminster-derived systems, in which members of both houses examine bills, scandals, or policy questions that cut across ministerial lines. JPCs have historically scrutinized financial irregularities — from India's 1992 securities scam JPC to inquiries into telecom licensing — and increasingly examine the intersection of business, technology, and national security. In recent years, the proliferation of data-protection bills, allegations of commercial spyware deployed against private actors, and concerns about foreign ownership of critical infrastructure have brought corporate-security questions firmly into parliamentary committees worldwide. The contemporary policy terrain is shaped by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, the US CLOUD Act, China's Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law, and a patchwork of national regimes governing cross-border data transfers, lawful access, and supply-chain due diligence. Parliamentary committees must reconcile economic competitiveness, civil liberties, and security interests — for example, when foreign cloud providers host sensitive citizen data, or when domestic firms are pressured to embed backdoors. The core dispute is whether harmonized standards can emerge, or whether digital sovereignty will entrench bloc-based regulation that fragments global business operations.

Key players

Historic Crisis Committee (HCC): The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962

In October 1962, US U-2 reconnaissance flights confirmed that the Soviet Union was secretly installing medium- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, within strike range of much of the continental United States. The deployment followed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, the US placement of Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Italy, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev's calculation that a fait accompli in the Caribbean would rebalance the strategic equation. President John F. Kennedy convened the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm), which debated options ranging from diplomatic protest to air strikes and full invasion before settling on a naval 'quarantine' announced on 22 October. The ensuing thirteen days brought the superpowers closer to nuclear war than at any other moment in the Cold War. Crisis dynamics played out on multiple tracks: public ultimatums, private letters between Kennedy and Khrushchev, back-channel contacts via Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and dangerous incidents at sea including the near-launch of a nuclear torpedo from submarine B-59. Resolution came on 28 October through a public Soviet commitment to withdraw the missiles in exchange for a US non-invasion pledge, with a secret understanding on the later withdrawal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The crisis reshaped nuclear doctrine, accelerated the Moscow-Washington hotline, and produced the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.

Key players

International Press Corps: Reporting Conflict, Disinformation, and Press Freedom

The International Press Corps in Model UN simulates the global journalism ecosystem that shapes how conflicts, negotiations, and crises are understood. Modern international reporting evolved from wire services such as Reuters (1851) and Associated Press (1846) into a dense network of broadcasters, newspapers, and digital-native outlets. Frameworks protecting journalists — including UNESCO's Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists (2012) and UN Security Council Resolution 2222 (2015) — exist alongside a sharply deteriorating environment: the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders document record numbers of journalists killed and detained, particularly in Gaza, Ukraine, Mexico, and authoritarian states. The core contemporary disputes concern the boundary between journalism and state power. Governments increasingly invoke national-security and 'foreign agent' laws to constrain reporting; platforms moderate content opaquely; generative AI accelerates the production of synthetic media; and state-backed outlets contest the very meaning of objectivity. Press freedom advocates push for stronger protections against SLAPP suits, surveillance via commercial spyware (notably Pegasus), and impunity in killings of journalists. The Press Corps must navigate accuracy under deadline pressure, source protection, and the ethics of covering ongoing atrocities — while operating in an information environment where speed and virality often outpace verification.

Key players

United Nations Security Council: Sudan's War and Norms for Cyber Operations

The Security Council, created under Chapter V of the UN Charter, holds primary responsibility for international peace and security and is the only UN organ whose decisions bind all member states. Its five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — wield the veto, which has repeatedly deadlocked the Council on Ukraine, Syria, and Israel-Palestine. Two files now dominate its agenda. First, the war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ('Hemedti'), has produced the world's largest displacement crisis, famine conditions in Darfur and Kordofan, and credible allegations of ethnic cleansing. The Council's existing Darfur arms embargo under Resolution 1591 (2005) is widely flouted, with reported external support flowing to both belligerents. Second, the Council faces persistent debate over cyber operations against critical infrastructure. Building on the work of successive UN Groups of Governmental Experts and the Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs, member states agree that international law applies in cyberspace but disagree on what this means for sovereignty, attribution, and proportional response. High-profile incidents — including NotPetya (2017), Colonial Pipeline (2021), and intrusions into water and health systems — have hardened positions. The Council must weigh whether to operationalize voluntary norms through binding measures, even as great-power rivalry blocks consensus on both Sudan sanctions enforcement and digital threats.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Geopolitics & Business Security.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

North Korea's Nuclear Navy Developments

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Denmark April 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

Geopolitics & Business Security

Apr 14, 2026Copenhagen, DenmarkIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

UNGA – DISEC
Disarmament & International Security Committee (DISEC): Emerging Technologies and Arms Control
UNHRC
United Nations Human Rights Council: Rights in the Age of Generative AI and Climate Displacement
IMF
International Monetary Fund: Sovereign Debt, Financial Stability, and Geoeconomic Fragmentation
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC): Cross-Border Data Flows, Corporate Espionage, and National Security
Historic Crisis Committee (HCC)
Historic Crisis Committee (HCC): The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962
International Press
International Press Corps: Reporting Conflict, Disinformation, and Press Freedom
Security Council
United Nations Security Council: Sudan's War and Norms for Cyber Operations

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Denmark

As the host nation, DNK likely emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and multilateralism in addressing global security challenges that impact trade and business.

Role in topic