We have entered an era in which geopolitics is no longer a distant backdrop to business strategy. It is a powerful force shaping markets, supply chains, capital flows, technological innovation, and competitive advantage. For business leaders—on the board and in executive leadership roles—understanding the broader geopolitical environment is no longer optional. It is essential to strategic planning, investment decision-making, and long-term growth.

Business strategy shaped without a geopolitical dimension is now incomplete.

This new course is built on a simple but urgent premise: organizations that fail to monitor and manage geopolitical risk will fall behind. Successful organizations need the ability to interpret, anticipate, and respond to geopolitical change as a core strategic capability.

Over two immersive days on MIT’s campus, you will acquire practical frameworks and tools for navigating a rapidly evolving global landscape shaped by shifting power and policy dynamics, economic realignment, and technological competition. The course focuses on the business implications of geopolitics, which increasingly shape where and how companies operate, compete, and grow. These dynamics influence market access, supply chain design, cost structures, technology and data decisions, access to resources, and capital allocation. It equips executives to make informed decisions across these critical levers—helping to strengthen organizational resilience, enhance competitiveness, and identify both emerging risks and new market opportunities.

Through a combination of strategic frameworks, economic and financial perspectives, policy dialogue, and hands-on simulations, you will learn how to move beyond awareness to action. The central question throughout the program is how to translate geopolitical insight into stronger business strategy and sustainable competitive advantage. 

You will leave this course with an organization-specific approach to navigating geopolitical volatility that integrates risk management, opportunity identification, and strategic execution.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Develop strategic clarity about the dynamics at the intersection of geopolitics and your business 
• Understand how shifting geopolitics is reshaping competitive landscapes, technological trajectories, and long-term value creation 
• Apply actionable frameworks to identify opportunities and risks created by the more volatile global environment 
• Use scenario analysis and ‘wargaming’ simulation to anticipate and respond to geopolitical disruptions 
• Translate geopolitical insight into concrete business decisions regarding investment, technological development and deployment, R&D location, supply chain design, data governance, cyber resilience, and market participation.
• Build more resilient, adaptive strategies that can withstand uncertainty while capturing emerging opportunities 
• Assess and respond to technology-related geopolitical risks, including export controls, technology decoupling, cybersecurity threats, supply-chain disruptions, data regulations, and constraints on access to advanced computing resources.

This two-day course combines rigorous analysis with direct application to your organization’s strategic challenges. You will learn frameworks for understanding geopolitics and apply them to real business decisions.

A core element of the experience is a structured wargaming exercise developed by MIT’s renowned Wargaming Lab, complemented by modern scenario-planning activities. Through a guided simulation, you will explore the perspectives and decision-making processes of geopolitical actors while identifying the second- and third-order business effects that traditional planning often overlooks. No prior wargaming experience is required.

Throughout the program, you will use MIT frameworks to connect geopolitical shifts to business outcomes. Case studies illustrate how geopolitical forces create new risks, constraints, and strategic choices for organizations. The focus is on the business implications of operating in an increasingly contested global environment. Faculty-led sessions, policy discussions, and guest perspectives provide practical insight into today’s geopolitical realities.