Meg Rithmire
Professor, Harvard Business School

Abstract:
Geopolitical concerns are critical to business resilience, and the actions of businesses have serious implications for geopolitics and national security. The frontier technologies that promise to reshape society and hold potentially disruptive military capabilities are almost all assets of private firms. And the main geopolitical relationship for the next generation —between the U.S. and China— is characterized by deep economic interdependence with firms on both sides perceived as vectors of vulnerability or weaponization. The choices firms make about their intellectual property, financial assets, supply chains, and more are critical to national security, but firms and governments typically do not interact on these issues in a comprehensive way, and firms do not incorporate national security into their decision-making. The “High Stakes” report from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation is the result of two years of interview and survey work with firms. We present three findings and a recommendation: China is the dominant source of risk for US firms, most US firms are engaged in and with China in multifaceted ways, and most see economic engagement in and with China as critical to their competitiveness. We recommend such companies adopt governance frameworks to internally screen their activities for national security and strategic risks.
 

Short Bio:
Meg Rithmire is the James E. Robison Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Professor Rithmire holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, and her primary expertise is in the comparative political economy of development with a focus on China and Asia. Her work focuses on China's role in the world, including Chinese outward investment and lending practices and economic relations between China and other countries, especially the United States. A new project on business geopolitical risk and resilience, for which she is co-chairing an initiative with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, focuses on how firms can and should change their governance practices to deal with geopolitical and especially national security risk. Professor Rithmire has published two books: Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia (Oxford University Press, 2023). Full list of publications: Meg Rithmire - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School

China Horizons:

Professor Rithmire visits CBS as a DWARC Fellow under the auspices of the Horizon Europe funded consortia ‘China Horizons – Dealing with a resurgent China (DWARC)’. More information: https://chinahorizons.eu/