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.