Preparing for Civil Unrest Risk Around the 2026 Midterm Elections

A crisis negotiations veteran explains how building rapport and trust help avert dangerous outcomes, even in very high threat situations. Includes firsthand experience to show how respect and listening can help save lives, and offers detailed suggestions for listening to understand underlying needs and interests. 

This guide provides concrete ways that companies can integrate civic activities into its talent management and other processes.

This report demonstrates that countries investing in stable, healthy systems and norms—such as resilient institutions, inclusive economies, and social trust—are more likely to flourish, while those that don’t face increased risk of future violent conflict.

A far-reaching account of how intractable conflicts can be transformed, and the mindset that enables breakthroughs. Outlines specific approaches from conflict resolutin and peace-building, including how to leverage a "third side."

This handbook chapter from Perkins Coie LLP outlines governance best practices for public company boards, covering fiduciary duties, oversight structures, committee responsibilities, compliance systems, and disclosure obligations. It emphasizes risk oversight, transparency, and evolving regulatory expectations affecting board accountability in complex operating environments. 

Why this resource matters 
It provides operational grounding for CPR governance by clarifying how boards oversee risk, disclosure, and fiduciary responsibilities in politically and socially complex systems. In particular, it provides the legal and conceptual basis for the governance of public affairs.

This report explores how geopolitical fragmentation, shifting alliances, and economic realignment are reshaping corporate sustainability strategies. It argues that companies must redesign governance structures, partnerships, and operating models to remain resilient while balancing sustainability commitments with rising political, regulatory, and market uncertainty across regions and sectors. 

The Rhodium Climate Outlook 2024 provides a probabilistic assessment of global emissions and energy trajectories through 2100, integrating uncertainty across economic, policy, and technology variables. It projects likely warming of 2.2–3.2°C under current policies but shows that if countries fulfill mid-century and expanded net-zero commitments, the probability of staying below 2°C rises to 96%. The report highlights innovation, equity, and policy acceleration as essential for achieving 2035 NDCs. 

This article outlines a new approach to corporate political engagement that builds on human rights frameworks to help combat corporate short-termism and enable companies to align their political engagement with longer-term priorities. The article outlines specific action steps that companies can use to align their political engagement with longer-term environmental, institutional stability, and human rights considerations.

This playbook offers HR professionals guidance on managing political discussions at work, providing strategies to ensure civil dialogue, resolve conflicts, and maintain a respectful, productive environment. It includes practical tips and real-world examples for handling political topics in diverse workplaces. 

Patricia McLagan is an author, consultant, and business owner with fifty years’ experience supporting large scale change processes in business and governments globally. From 1983 through 2004, Pat consulted with major South African businesses, government entities, universities, and parastatals, and chaired the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation after returning to the US. This article draws on her personal experience with South African businesses and government entities from 1983 into the 2010s, focusing on what some white South African business leaders did in a time of polarization and potential civil war. 

This article examines two methods for pricing carbon – the first based on estimating the “social cost of carbon” for current and future generations, and the second based on mandating limits and using a permit system to meet them. Argues for a fixed limit based on tipping points, and points to the challenges of political coordination required to adopt it, and the potential for technology to make that easier.

Comments from business leaders, academics, civil society organizations and others commenting how the Erb Principles for Corporate Political Responsibility can help with managing risk, sustaining market economies, strengthening civic institutions and enabling long-term value for business and society. 

This work examines how global capitalism’s democratic foundations are eroding, as inequality, institutional decay, policy capture and corporate dominance erode democratic legitimacy. It argues that corporate-state relations and market structures shape democratic outcomes and that without attention to power, voice and influence, business risks operating in unstable systems of diminishing legitimacy. 

This paper examines how the intersection of corporate governance and political engagement is reshaping business strategies and societal impact. It explores how factors like ESG investing, corporate activism, and political changes are pushing businesses into social issues, complicating the roles of shareholders vs. stakeholders, and blurring the lines between private and public power. The author offers new models for businesses and policymakers to navigate these evolving dynamics. 

What It Is: An article laying out a structured "nonmarket strategy" framework — analysis, strategy formulation, capacity building, feasibility checks, and implementation — for how companies should engage with regulators, activists, and public opinion alongside their core market strategy. 

Why It Matters: The authors provide detailed cases that show the risks and best practices, that impact a company's social license to operate — arguing that nonmarket engagement isn't a side activity but a core determinant of whether a company's social license to operate holds. 

How to Use It: Use the five-stage framework (analysis, strategy, capacity, feasibility, implementation) as a working checklist when developing or auditing your organization's own nonmarket/public affairs strategy, while also considering safeguards, such as those in our Principled Influence: A Guide to Strengthening Public Affairs Practices in Polarized Environments. 

This guide offers companies a research-backed climate communication strategy that emphasizes materiality over morality—framing climate action as a business necessity, not just ethical responsibility. Drawing on extensive surveys and focus groups from the US and abroad, it outlines how to connect with skeptical audiences by stressing the concrete, economic benefits of climate initiatives.