International business is increasingly shaped not only by markets, customers, and competition, but also by state power. Governments use tariffs, export controls, sanctions, investment restrictions, industrial policy, subsidies, technology controls, financial regulation, and access to critical infrastructure as instruments of economic and strategic influence. Companies operating internationally must therefore understand how trade policy and geopolitical competition can alter supply chains, financing, market access, technology availability, investment decisions, and long-term corporate strategy.
This advanced course provides a practical, executive-oriented study of trade, sanctions, and geo-economics from the perspective of managers rather than diplomats or trade lawyers. It moves beyond introductory international business and macroeconomic concepts to examine how corporate leaders identify exposure to geopolitical fragmentation, evaluate restricted-market risks, redesign supply chains, govern cross-border transactions, manage sanctions and export-control exposure, and incorporate political-economic developments into capital allocation and strategic planning.
The course emphasizes how executives should respond when commercial decisions become entangled with national security, trade policy, regulatory divergence, strategic technologies, financial restrictions, and competing economic blocs. Students learn to distinguish among ordinary commercial risk, country risk, sanctions risk, trade-compliance risk, supply-chain concentration, and broader geo-economic exposure.
The practical objective is to develop managers capable of asking the questions that increasingly matter in international enterprise leadership: Can we legally transact? Can we obtain the technology or inputs we need? Can our suppliers continue serving us? Could our customers or counterparties become restricted? Could tariffs destroy the economics of the business? Could financial flows be interrupted? Should production be relocated? Is a politically attractive market commercially too risky? What strategic options should management preserve before conditions deteriorate?
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Analyze international trade policy from a corporate strategy perspective.
• Understand how sanctions, export controls, tariffs, investment restrictions, and industrial policies influence business decisions.
• Identify direct and indirect geo-economic exposures across customers, suppliers, subsidiaries, investors, technologies, and financial relationships.
• Evaluate how geopolitical competition affects market access and global value chains.
• Incorporate trade-policy risk into sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, pricing, and investment decisions.
• Recognize managerial responsibilities associated with sanctions and restricted-party exposure.
• Evaluate export-control implications for technology, equipment, software, and cross-border operations.
• Assess economic-security risks affecting critical industries and strategic technologies.
• Design organizational systems for trade-risk monitoring and escalation.
• Evaluate reshoring, nearshoring, friend-shoring, regionalization, and supplier diversification strategies.
• Integrate geo-economic risk into mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, and capital allocation.
• Interpret trade and sanctions developments without overreacting to headlines or underestimating structural change.
• Communicate geo-economic risks effectively to executives and boards.
• Develop strategic options that preserve enterprise flexibility during geopolitical uncertainty.
