Webcast
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CPD
Join us for a director-focused briefing with Robert Patman on shifting global dynamics and emerging geopolitical risks.
Global disruption is no longer a background risk for boards. Strategic competition between major powers, shifting US foreign policy, conflict and changing international relationships are reshaping the environment in which New Zealand organisations operate – with consequences for trade, supply chains, investment, market access and organisational resilience.
The IoD’s Geopolitical climate: Boardroom briefings is a four-part webinar series designed to help directors govern with confidence in this changing environment. In this final briefing for 2026, Professor Robert Patman, an Inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair in International Relations at the University of Otago, will bring a global security and international relations lens to the geopolitical developments shaping New Zealand’s operating environment.
Drawing on his research into global security, US foreign policy and great-power relations, Robert will explore how the international order is changing, where the key sources of geopolitical uncertainty are emerging, and what those shifts could mean for New Zealand organisations.
Directors will gain a clearer view of the developments worth watching and the strategic questions they raise for boards – including how changing international relationships could affect markets, supply chains, investment assumptions and organisational resilience, and how boards can think about geopolitical risk when the direction and timing of change remain uncertain.
Robert is one of the University of Otago's inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chairs and his research interests concern international relations, global security, US foreign policy, great powers, and the Horn of Africa. He is a former HOD of the Department of Politics and also served as an editor for International Studies Perspectives and Head of Department of Politics.
Robert is the author or editor of 12 books. Publications include Strategic Shortfall: The 'Somalia Syndrome' and the March to 9/11 (Praeger, 2010), co-edited books titled China and the International System: Becoming a World Power (Routledge, 2013); Science Diplomacy: New Day or False Dawn? (World Scientific Publishers, 2015) and New Zealand and the World: Past, Present and Future (World Scientific Publishers, 2018). Robert is currently writing a volume called Rethinking the Global Impact of 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
He is a Fulbright Senior Scholar, an Honorary Professor of the New Zealand Defence Command and Staff College and provides regular contributions to the national and international media on global issues and events.
CMInstD
Judene is a Principal Governance Advisor with the Institute of Directors’ Governance Leadership Centre, leading governance research, best practice guidance and advocacy for directors, and Chapter Zero NZ.
Prior to joining the IoD she ran her own consultancy for over 20 years, specialising in governance, policy, strategy and communications working across a wide range of sectors, including housing, health, solid waste, aviation, energy, not-for-profit and infrastructure.
Judene was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to governance, local government and the community in the 2026 New Year Honours. She was a local government elected member for 12 years and a director on a range of private and public entity boards. She has a background in behavioural science and communications and is a Chartered Member of the IoD.
Carla Britz
National Events Executive
+64 27 223 2802
carla.britz@iod.org.nz
