The Rise of Geopolitical Communications: Why Every Communications Leader Must Now Think Like a Diplomat

Toby Doman: 

The events of January 3rd, unfolding in the darkness of early morning in Caracas, offered another stark reminder that geopolitics no longer sits at the margins of corporate life. It now sets the operating conditions.

Until recently, most communications leaders tracked geopolitics at a distance — the remit of government affairs, risk teams, or external advisers. That distance has disappeared. Topics such as global conflict, sanctions regimes, energy shocks, supply chain realignments, and debates over digital sovereignty now land directly on the desks of corporate affairs teams, often with little warning and no margin for error.

Politics is no longer a backdrop to corporate reputation; it is a frontline driver of it. Today’s disruption rapidly becomes tomorrow’s operating reality. Crisis is no longer episodic — it is structural.

Technology and capital flows have bound organisations and stakeholders closer together than ever. A regulatory decision in Washington, a conflict escalation in Europe, or a coordinated social media campaign in Asia can reshape reputation, market access, and employee trust overnight. The challenge is no longer whether to engage with geopolitics, but how to do so while continuing to deliver value in an environment defined by volatility. And to meet that challenge, communications practitioners will increasingly need to adopt the mindset of a diplomat. 

When communications become a point of exposure

What has changed most is not simply the volume of geopolitical risk, but where it surfaces. Communications itself has become a point of exposure.

Corporate statements are now read less as expressions of values and more as signals of alignment, intent, and risk positioning. Language choices are scanned by regulators, investors, employees, and governments alike. Seemingly technical details — how a territory is referenced, how sanctions are described, how neutrality is framed — can carry legal and reputational consequences across markets.

This has forced a fundamental shift in corporate affairs. Communications leaders must combine political awareness with narrative discipline, retaining the ability to tell coherent stories while stress-testing messages against geopolitical realities. A message that reassures one audience may inflame another – this is particularly pertinent in highly polarised societies. The assumption that a single global narrative will travel intact across borders no longer holds. 

Employees: The overlooked geopolitical audience

Employees are often the first stakeholders to feel the impact of geopolitical crises — and the last to be considered in messaging strategies. Global events generate fear, polarisation, misinformation, and moral pressure inside organisations, particularly when employees experience the same event in radically different ways.

Internal communications during these moments are not about providing perfect answers. They are about maintaining trust. Silence can quickly be interpreted as indifference; overstatement interpreted as political positioning. Internal misalignment, if exposed externally, can compound reputational risk. Optics matter just as much as an on-the-record statement. 

Communications leaders must now actively shape internal dialogue, providing context without prescribing views, acknowledging complexity without fuelling division, and reinforcing organisational purpose and objectives. It is something akin to threading an eye of a needle. 

Speed, misinformation, and CEO exposure

Globally, the familiar VUCA conditions — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity — have intensified, amplified by misinformation, deepfakes, and AI-driven manipulation. Information now travels at a speed that leaves little room for reflection, yet the cost of misjudgement has never been higher.

Stakeholders demand immediate responses, often before facts are fully established, while organisations face contradictory expectations from governments, activists, investors, customers, and employees. In this environment, the relationship between communications leaders and CEOs is mission-critical.

A recent study from consultants at McKinsey, reveals that the world’s highest-performing CEOs spend around 30 percent of their time engaging external stakeholders. Communications leaders must act as interpreters of geopolitical risk and act as trusted advisers, helping leadership understand not just what can be said, but how it will be heard.

AI as a Diplomatic Tool

Artificial intelligence is both a risk multiplier and a strategic asset. While it accelerates misinformation, it also offers communications teams new capabilities: early detection of narrative shifts, cross-market sentiment analysis, and scenario modelling.

Used responsibly, AI should enhance judgement rather than replace it. It allows corporate affairs leaders to identify patterns and signals early, bringing informed, independent perspectives to decision-making — a defining trait of effective diplomacy.

Redefining Corporate Affairs

As a result of these rapid changes in the global communications and geopolitical landscape, the corporate affairs function is also undergoing an evolution of its own.

The 2024 Deloitte Corporate Affairs report identifies four roles that now define high-performing functions:

• Architect: Designing strategies fit for geopolitical friction
• Orchestrator: Aligning corporate affairs for measurable business impact
• Steward: Guiding organisations through geopolitical risk and transformation
• Ambassador: Representing the organisation with credibility and authority

In an era where geopolitics shapes perception as much as performance, communications leaders must think less like broadcasters and more like diplomats. Reputation now depends not just on what organisations say, but on how well they understand the world in which their words reverberate. 

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Toby Doman is Head of External Communications at PPF Group.

Written by: Editor