Specific cases in Turkey, Chile, and the United States speak to a shift in riot and civil disorder risk, along with consequences for risk transfer decision-making. New sources of capital may be able to help communities prepare more effectively for post-event recovery.
The social and economic impacts of political violence don’t often match. Terror attacks can accomplish their main objective of striking fear into a local population while not significantly interfering with commerce, and broad waves of unrest have the potential for supply chain disruption, local business closures lasting for days, and repair and remediation that can become quite costly. There’s a third category that doesn’t get enough attention in policy and academic circles: insurance industry losses.