A New Geopolitics Push? How International B-Schools Are Responding To Global Chaos

Luc de Rancourt, a retired General of the Armée l’Air et de l’Espace (French Air and Space Force), spent nearly 40 years flying in and out of war zones. His first operational deployment was the Gulf War, his last to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. He ended his military career reporting directly to the French Minister of Defense. He was Deputy Commander of French Special Forces, served on NATO missions, and trained at the US Air Force Academy.

Now, he teaches business students.

In June, Edhec Business School in France announced the creation of a new Chair of Geopolitics and Business Strategy, part of its strategic plan, Generations 2050, which aims to teach students how to transform business for the common good. The chair is co-directed by de Rancourt and Mailys Vicaire, EDHEC’s director of management education.

De Rancourt’s new mission is to help students and business leaders decode global threats, anticipate military and diplomatic disruption, and craft corporate strategy amid geopolitical turbulence.

“Usually geopolitical issues are perceived through risk management. But, we are now in an environment which is much less stable. You need leaders prepared to not just react, but to anticipate and identify opportunities,” de Rancourt tells Poets&Quants.

“I don’t want the chair to be something which sees geopolitics only as risks. It is a matter of opportunity. Our motto for the chair is ‘anticipate, act, and do not injure.’”

‘WELCOME TO THE DARK AGE OF POST-GLOBALIZATION’

EDHEC is hardly alone. Across Europe and Canada, business schools are launching schools, centers, degrees, and courses to confront both new geopolitical challenges as well as those that have lingered for decades. Students are being taught how to navigate international trade wars, contested energy markets, fractured alliances, and misinformation.

France’s ESCP is creating a new school of governance that will operate alongside its business school as well as a new technology school under a restructured European University of Management.

The UK’s Cambridge Judge Business School introduced a new MBA module, “Geopolitics and Financial Regulation,” exploring how conflicts, trade wars, and regulatory divergence impact global finance.

And, last year, ESSEC Business School in France created the Institute for Geopolitics & Business as part of its 2024-2028 Transcend Strategy.

“We are witnessing the world’s growing brutalization, placing companies directly on the battlefield of a hybrid war. Welcome to the dark age of post-globalization, which profoundly destabilizes economic and operational models. ” says Aurélien Colson, an associate professor of political science and co-director of ESSEC’s new institute.

“This calls for major transformations across all corporate functions – CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, COOs, CTOs. It may even require the creation of a Chief Geopolitical Officer within executive committees.”

2025’s GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE

In 2008, de Rancourt witnessed a series of geopolitical shocks with real economic consequences: the Russia-Georgia war, repercussions from China’s first satellite strike, and the collapse of the Doha trade round. It was also the year of the global financial crisis, and the first meeting of the G20 to invite to the table leaders of emerging powers like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and China.

“For me, that really marks the entry into a new geopolitical era,” de Rancourt says. “The end of what I would call a rather naive, or candid, globalization.”

2025’s shocks are just as urgent. he describes the current moment as global anomie, a disorganized world without common values.

He sees the collapse of a unipolar order, rising U.S.–China rivalry, a protracted war in Ukraine, and instability in the Middle East. The climate crisis remains an existential threat, but one the international community seems too divided to solve.

And then there’s artificial intelligence. “(Business leaders) are entering the most acute information and governance crisis in my lifetime,” says Alan Jagolinzer, vice-dean of programs at Cambridge Judge.

“People do not know what is real and what is fake… This will affect everything from what is purchased to who governs.”

In 2023, Judge hosted the first Cambridge Disinformation Summit, convening scholars and policymakers to confront systemic information risks. It hosted the second this past April.

“Our students will also sadly be tempted by huge profit potential from building businesses that capitalize on people’s addictions to these information and AI technologies. I have never seen a more acute need for this type of education and we need to deploy it urgently,” Jagolinzer says.

“We likely have the next Zuckerberg or Altman in our audiences. We have a responsibility to help frame their future work in the context of societal impact, before they launch.”

HOW SCHOOLS ARE RESPONDING

In response, international business schools are building institutes, degrees, research partnerships, and full academic divisions aimed at the intersection of geopolitics and business. Others are doubling down on long-standing programs.

In 2025, IMD released “From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business,” a whitepaper from a significant research initiative developed in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum. Next year, ESCP will launch an Executive Master’s in Strategy and Defense Studies working with industry, economic agencies and the French military.

Canada’s Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto has offered a Master of Global Affairs/Master of Business Administration (MGA/MBA) for several years in conjunction with the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. This year, it is offering “Navigating US/Canada Relations and Business Response to US/Canada Trade Tensions” as an MBA elective. It is taught by the Hon. Bill Morneau, Canada’s 39th Minister of Finance and former Governor at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In Spain, Esade Business School uses research from its Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics (EsadeGeo) in most of its programs. The center was founded in 2010 when Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and EU High Representative for Common Security and Defense Policy, joined the business school. Today, scholars from the Department on Society, Policy and Sustainability and the Department of Strategy.

“We currently are in a space where different geopolitical actors do not agree on what constitutes fair trade and legitimate economic policies. Until this new consensus is reached, volatility and uncertainty derived from geopolitics will endure,” says Professor Ángel Saz, director of EsadeGeo.

“Next gen business leaders will have to internalize politics and policy into their business thinking and strategizing. When market rules are relegated to other political priorities – such as security, equality or sovereignty – policy logic takes over.”

The table below shows a non-exhaustive roundup of geopolitical courses, degrees, research centers and other initiatives of select schools across Europe and Canada. (See a more detailed school-by-school breakout of geopolitical offerings and philosophies: 9 International Business Schools Where You Can Study Geopolitics)

Geopolitics In International Business Schools
Business School	Centers / Initiatives	Degrees & Specializations	Courses
IE Business School (Spain)	IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs; IE Center for the Governance of Change (CGC); IE Transatlantic Relations Initiative (TRI)	International MBA; Master in Management (Concentration in Strategic Foresight & International Business); Dual Degrees BBA + International Relations / Political Science	“Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning” is core in the Global Executive MBA while strategic foresight and geopolitical electives offered across programs
Rotman School of Management (Canada)	Rotman Institute for International Business	Master of Global Affairs/MBA (dual degree with University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy)	Global Manager Initiative: MBA students work with Canadian firms to develop global strategy, culminating in an Ontario government trade mission to Munich for IAA Mobility 2025
Cambridge Judge Business School (UK)	Centre for Chinese Management; Centre for India & Global Business; Centre for Risk Studies; Cambridge Disinformation Summit	MPhil in Technology Policy (integrating technology, management, economics, and government policy)	MBA module “Geopolitics and Financial Regulation” (2025); geopolitical electives across MBA, MPhil, and executive education
Esade (Spain)	EsadeGeo (Center for Global Economy & Geopolitics, founded 2010)	MBA; Executive programs in business, government, and society	MBA core “Business, Government & Society”; executive program “Geopolitics, Economics & Risk” (launching Nov. 2025)
ESSEC (France)	Institute for Geopolitics & Business (launched 2024); IRENE Centre for Negotiation and Mediation (founded in 1996) Center for European Law and Economics (2008) Center for Geopolitics, Defense & Leadership (2021)	MIM with 300+ students in tracks including International Negotiation, Defense, European Affairs	Electives in China’s political economy, defense, and international negotiation
EDHEC (France)	Geopolitics & Business Strategy Chair (launched 2025 under Generations 2050 strategy)	Core geopolitics course for all pre-master students	Special interventions planned for GETT programs, E-MBA, Global MBA, and executive courses
HEC Paris (France)	HEC Paris Center for Geopolitics; Strategy in an Age of Fragmentation conference	Executive MSc in Geopolitics & Geo-economics of Emerging Africa; multiple dual degrees in international business and diplomacy	Summer School in Geopolitics, Globalization & Business Strategy (10th edition, 2025); MBA electives in country risk and systemic analysis; EMBA core “Business Environment”
IMD (Switzerland)	World Competitiveness Yearbook (1989), World Competitiveness Center Hinrich-IMD Sustainable Trade Index (2022) “From Blind Spots to Insights: Enhancing Geopolitical Radar to Guide Global Business” (2025) , research iniative in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum Geopolitical Radar and Sonar framework (2025)	Executive Masters in Sustainable Business Transformation; AI & Digital Business Transformation	Geopolitics integrated across MBA and Executive MBA; exec ed open course “Geopolitics Series: Navigating America’s New Direction” (2025); 10+ custom executive programs on geopolitics in 2025
ESCP (France)	ESCP School of Governance (launching in 2029) ESCP Geopolitics Institute (2024) “Europe after the War in Ukraine,” research initiative in collaboration with INALCO and Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle	MSc International Business & Diplomacy; Executive Master’s in Strategy & Defense Studies (launching 2026)	MIM specialization in public affairs

 

DON’T MISS: 9 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOLS WHERE YOU CAN STUDY GEOPOLITICS

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