Aon Risk Solutions has issued its interactive 2014 Terrorismand Political Violence Map. Mousing over the map reveals arating for each country, on a scale of 1 to 5, of the overall levelof risk from terrorism and political violence to businessesoperating within its borders. Users can also view ratings ofbusiness risk broken into subcategories: terrorism and sabotage;riots, strikes, civil commotion, and malicious damage to property;and insurrection, revolution, rebellion, mutiny, coup d'etat, civilwar, and war. Aon developed the ratings jointly with the RiskAdvisory Group plc.

Compared with last year's ratings, this year Aon gave reducedrisk scores to 34 countries and gave increased risk scores to onlyfour: Brazil, Japan, Mozambique, and Bangladesh. Brazil's ratingrose from medium in 2013 to severe in 2014 because of last year'slarge-scale and violent anti-government protests, which Aon expectsto continue. Japan's risk increased from negligible to low becauseof increased geopolitical tensions and the nation's rising militaryspending.

Not surprisingly, the Middle East and Africa remain the areaswhere businesses face the highest risks. One-third of all countriesthat received “high” or “severe” risk scores are in sub-SaharanAfrica. Although the map does not include breakdowns by industrysector, Aon reports that retail and transportation are the sectorsmost at risk. Last year, 33 percent of terrorist attacks hit theretail sector, while 18 percent affected transportation.

“The map shows that having the means to understand and stayahead of terrorism threats and political violence risks has neverbeen more important,” says Henry Wilkinson, head of theIntelligence and Analysis practice at Risk Advisory. “Despite signsof global economic recovery, businesses in emerging markets are as exposed as ever to a diversifying arrayof risks and threats from sophisticated and often highly networkedadversaries. New threats can emerge increasingly rapidly, ashostile actors evolve faster and emulate tactics that have anever-greater impact, be it through mobilizing mass unrest ormounting sustained armed terrorist attacks.”