{"id":34640,"date":"2026-01-26T10:05:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/?p=34640"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:05:59","slug":"mark-beasley-breaks-down-2026-global-risks-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/article\/mark-beasley-breaks-down-2026-global-risks-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Beasley Breaks Down 2026 Global Risks Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

The World Economic Forum released its Global Risks Report for 2026<\/a>. Issued in tandem with the WEF\u2019s Davos Conference each January, the report surveys over 1,300 experts from across the globe about current, short-term and long-term concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Beasley<\/a>, director of the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative<\/a> and the Alan\u202fT. Dickson Distinguished Professor of Accounting at Poole College of Management, dove into the report and shared his takeaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right off the bat, uncertainty is high among respondents: 50% said that the short-term outlook was \u201cturbulent\u201d or \u201cstormy,\u201d and 57% said the same about the long-term outlook. The top risk for both current year and in the short-term (two years out) is geopolitical confrontation, in light of rising nationalism and fraying alliances among traditional partners. The top three long-term (10 years out) risks are all related to climate change and environmental issues, with extreme weather events in the top position.

Beasley found five critical takeaways from the report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Geopolitical instability dominates the global risk landscape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Misinformation has become a structural threat to trust and stability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Societal polarization threatens market stability and workforce cohesion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Environmental risks will define the long-term risk horizon.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Technology risks \u2014 especially AI and cybersecurity \u2014 are rising sharply.
    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    To learn more, including strategic responses to each risk, read Beasley\u2019s executive takeaways on the ERM website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

    The World Economic Forum released its Global Risks Report for 2026<\/a>. Issued in tandem with the WEF\u2019s Davos Conference each January, the report surveys over 1,300 experts from across the globe about current, short-term and long-term concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mark Beasley<\/a>, director of the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative<\/a> and the Alan\u202fT. Dickson Distinguished Professor of Accounting at Poole College of Management, dove into the report and shared his takeaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Right off the bat, uncertainty is high among respondents: 50% said that the short-term outlook was \u201cturbulent\u201d or \u201cstormy,\u201d and 57% said the same about the long-term outlook. The top risk for both current year and in the short-term (two years out) is geopolitical confrontation, in light of rising nationalism and fraying alliances among traditional partners. The top three long-term (10 years out) risks are all related to climate change and environmental issues, with extreme weather events in the top position.

    Beasley found five critical takeaways from the report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Geopolitical instability dominates the global risk landscape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Misinformation has become a structural threat to trust and stability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Societal polarization threatens market stability and workforce cohesion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Environmental risks will define the long-term risk horizon.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Technology risks \u2014 especially AI and cybersecurity \u2014 are rising sharply.
      <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      To learn more, including strategic responses to each risk, read Beasley\u2019s executive takeaways on the ERM website<\/a>.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Released in concert with the WEF’s Davos Conference, the Global Risks Report surveys experts on concerns and risk management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39405,"featured_media":34648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"displayCategoryID\":85,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Released in concert with the WEF's Davos Conference, the Global Risks Report surveys experts on concerns and risk management.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,77],"tags":[267,657,655],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-34640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enterprise-risk-management","category-newswire","tag-beasley","tag-enterprise-risk-management-initiative","tag-global-risks-report"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":85,"name":"Enterprise Risk Management","slug":"enterprise-risk-management","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":85,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":47,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34640"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34649,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34640\/revisions\/34649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34640"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=34640"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=34640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}