HASS498B counts toward your Culture & Society requirements. For HASS550, all backgrounds are welcome; there are no pre-reqs.

A CEO for a global mining company was fired when he oversaw a project in an African country where a local political leader blocked the company from using a river to move their product. Another company paid top dollar for a site they could not use because they had not understood the rights First Nations have in Canada. Both companies would likely have avoided these economic disasters if they had heeded a political risk assessment (PRA).

A PRA helps a company decide if it wants to expand into a location by better understanding the kinds of non-technical risks it will face. In talking to professionals who conduct, write, or use PRA reports, we learned that qualitative analysis is more highly valued than quantitative. As such, we will focus on qualitative data and analysis.

You will select a company (for-profit or non-profit) for which you will write a PRA focused on a country or US state, whichever you choose, that the company is thinking of expanding into. Ideally, the company will participate in your decisions about where to focus. Previous students have chosen an explosives company, local and global oil and gas companies, water non-profits that specialize in Asia and Africa, among others. You will end the class with a detailed PRA.

Learning to assess risks that companies face will make you a better advocate, employee, owner, and boss, as well as a more informed citizen and traveler. You will also become more informed about the sector to which your company belongs.