Businesses have ranked political risks and violence as a top 10 global risk for the past three years, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2025 demonstrating that it has become a key concern for companies of all sizes.

According to the new report from Allianz Commercial “Political violence and civil unrest trends 2025”, civil unrest ranks as the biggest concern for more than 50% of company respondents globally, reflecting the fact that incidents are increasing and lasting for longer.

Not including ongoing social unrest in the Balkans and Türkiye, there have been over 800 significant anti-government protests since 2017 in more than 150 countries, with more than 160 events in 2024 alone – 18% of protests lasting for more than three months, Following the “super election year” in 2024, policy changes by governments will continue to be trigger factors for protests and flashpoints in many countries in future, as could any economic hardships that result from tariff wars. In addition, an increase in terrorist attacks from religious and political extremists – motivated by both far-right and left ideologies – is also a major concern for businesses over the year ahead, Allianz said.

“Political violence remains a top 10 global business risk according to our customers because politics is increasingly perceived as being dominated by populism and blame and division, geopolitics by nationalism and a changing world order, and economics by mismanagement, corruption, and continually rising disparity between the ‘rich’ and the rest”, commented Srdjan Todorovic, Head of Political Violence and Hostile Environment Solutions at Allianz Commercial. “Political violence activity can impact businesses in many ways. In addition to endangering the safety of employees and customers, those in the immediate vicinity of unrest can suffer business interruption losses and material damage to property or assets”, Srdjan Todorovic added.

Global stability in 2025 continues to be undermined by the forces of international conflict, geopolitical upheaval and economic uncertainty and the prospect of trade wars. In this report, Allianz Commercial experts highlight some of the potential drivers of political violence and civil unrest activity. Businesses need to remain vigilant about the shapeshifting nature of political violence and mindful of the risk that localized unrest could significantly impact their activities.

Full report can be found here.