For businesses looking to expand globally, especially in parts of Africa and the Middle East, terrorism and political violence are major concerns. Aon Risk Solutions teamed up with The Risk Advisory Group to estimate these and related risks in 200 countries around the world, rating risk levels on a six-tier scale from “no risk” to “severe.”

This is the 10th year Aon has completed the exercise, and its Terrorism and Political Violence Map reflects the results. The map offers four views of the world, which rate national risk in terms of:

• terrorism and sabotage;
• riots, strikes, civil commotion, and malicious damage;
• insurrection, revolution, mutiny coup d'etat, civil war, and war; and
• overall country risk.

Users who fill in an online registration form can access historical data as well as information for 2013. One key take-away from this year's survey is that political risk is decreasing in Europe, where 47 percent of countries received lower risk ratings this year than last year. In contrast, 64 percent of countries in the Middle East received a rating of either “high” or “severe.” The 10 nations identified as having the highest threat of terrorism were Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, and the Yemen.