Joseph Smith is responsible for providing analysis on international business issues, including geopolitics, transnational terrorism, direct action, sanctions and risks relating to climate change. He contributes to Control Risks’ online subscription services and bespoke client consultancy projects. He previously worked as Control Risks’ lead analyst on kidnapping and extortion throughout the Americas and provided analytical support to consultants deployed on active kidnap-for-ransom and extortion cases.

Joe’s recent consulting experience includes:

• A global sanctions risk assessment and monitoring solution for a multinational in the chemicals sector, to better understand its current and future exposure to international sanctions regimes, and to prioritise and strengthen its global compliance activities.
• A bespoke monitoring and analysis solution for an international flag carrier, to better understand the overflight risks to its aircraft, passengers and crew along identified routes, and allow changes to be made during the flight programming and planning process.
• A series of crisis management workshops for an insurance client, focusing on the risks associated with CBRN attacks and other malicious acts perpetrated by non-state actors.
• A global threat outlook for an international shipping and gas storage company, focusing on the main drivers shaping international events and the likely implications of these trends on security, sanctions and integrity risks.
  
  

Prior to joining Control Risks, Joe worked in external relations for a Nicaraguan development charity. He also worked as a freelance analyst for Salamanca Group, producing reports on kidnapping and extortion in Latin America, and as a campaigns assistant and Caribbean researcher at Amnesty International. Joe has a BA in French and Spanish from the University of Oxford, and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London.