For businesses looking to expand globally, especially in partsof Africa and the Middle East, terrorism and political violence aremajor concerns. Aon Risk Solutions teamed up with The Risk AdvisoryGroup to estimate these and related risks in 200 countries aroundthe world, rating risk levels on a six-tier scale from “no risk” to“severe.”

This is the 10th year Aon has completed the exercise, and itsTerrorismand Political Violence Map reflects the results. The map offersfour views of the world, which rate national risk in terms of:

• terrorism and sabotage;
• riots, strikes, civil commotion, and malicious damage;
• insurrection, revolution, mutiny coup d'etat, civil war, andwar; and
• overall country risk.

Users who fill in an online registration form can accesshistorical data as well as information for 2013. One key take-awayfrom this year's survey is that political risk is decreasing inEurope, where 47 percent of countries received lower risk ratingsthis year than last year. In contrast, 64 percent of countries inthe Middle East received a rating of either “high” or “severe.” The10 nations identified as having the highest threat of terrorismwere Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia,Syria, Thailand, and the Yemen.