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The Hour of the Rhinos: How Companies Manage the New Geopolitical Risks
Book Talk with Ansgar Baums
Microsoft’s Book Talk series features leading authors discussing how the next wave of technology will impact our world.
The event was held on November 5th at the Microsoft Center Brussels as we continue the series with Ansgar Baums, discussing his book The Hour of the Rhinos.
Agenda
Registration
Welcome remarks
Book Talk with Ansgar Baums
- Ansgar Baums, Author
Moderator:
- Daniel Fiott, Head of the Defence and Statecraft Programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG)
Audience Q&A
Book signing and networking reception
About the Book
Gray rhinos are risks that companies know — or at least should know. They do not appear suddenly like black swans, but are predictable. And yet many companies fail to act. Especially on the geopolitical level, the hour of the rhinos has now struck for European companies.
The United States and China are battling for global dominance — with tariffs and export controls, artificial shortages of raw materials, and technical standards. Trump’s and Xi’s rhinos are highly dangerous — and if companies do not prepare, they risk being crushed in this power struggle. Geopolitics expert Ansgar Baums and Spiegel bestselling author and technology expert Thomas Ramge therefore call for intelligent geopolitical risk management in a contested, disorderly world. And they show how it can be done.
About the Author
Ansgar Baums is Senior Advisor to Sinolytics and consults corporations on geopolitical risk management. He is also a non-residential senior fellow at the Stimson Center. In 2023, Ansgar was German Marshall Fund’s Helmut Schmidt Fellow 2023.
He was formerly in government relations at Zoom Video Communications. Prior to that, Baums held other positions within the corporate world, most recently as Head of the Global Strategy Program at HP and as Head of Government Relations Europe/Middle East/Africa at HP. Ansgar also worked for SAP AG, the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications, and New Media – Bitkom, and Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Ansgar holds a master's degree with distinction in international strategy and economics from the University of St. Andrews and a postgraduate diploma in political science from the Free University Berlin.
Featured speakers
Ansgar Baums is joined by Daniel Fiott.
Ansgar Baums
Author
Daniel Fiott
Head of the Defence and Statecraft Programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG)
Past events
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Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future
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Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
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Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
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