Nordic Business Forum 2026 Speaker
Michael Beckley
Michael Beckley is a tenured political science professor at Tufts University, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Head of Asia Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
His research develops new methods to measure national power and forecast the rise and fall of great powers, showing why some states dominate while others decline. His work has received multiple awards from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association and featured widely in popular media, including The Atlantic, The Economist, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
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Michael at Nordic Business Forum 2026
The Decisive Edge in a Divided World
Michael’s session equips leaders to make smarter decisions in an era of rising geopolitical risk. He dismantles outdated assumptions—especially about China—and reveals how ignoring these shifts could jeopardize your strategy. Michael challenges businesses to think beyond corporate competition and prepare for a world where national interests shape the rules. His insights offer a roadmap for building resilient strategies and supply chains in a fractured global landscape.
Learning points:
- How to challenge the outdated growth assumptions, especially about China, that might be hiding massive risks in your current strategy.
- How to build a winning strategy when you’re no longer competing with companies, but with the subsidized power of nations.
- How to design a resilient, “shock-proof” supply chain and market strategy for a world that is breaking into geopolitical blocs.
More from Michael Beckley
Read
It has become conventional wisdom that America and China are running a “superpower marathon” that may last a century. Yet Hal Brands and Michael Beckley pose a counterintuitive question: What if the sharpest phase of that competition is more like a decade-long sprint?
Watch
In this keynote at the 2024 World Knowledge Forum, AEI Nonresident Senior Fellow Michael Beckley examines the pivotal question: Has China’s meteoric rise reached its peak? With deep insights into China’s economic slowdown, demographic challenges, and shifting geopolitical ambitions, Beckley outlines the potential decline of Chinese influence and what it means for the future of the global order.
Listen
This episode revisits Michael Beckley’s major predictions about China’s economic decline and rising geopolitical aggression, including the heightened risk of a Taiwan conflict. We dig into whether China’s problems can still be reversed, how they’re reshaping Beijing’s strategy, and what all of this means for the late 2020s.
Join Europe's Largest Business & Leadership Event
16-17 September 2026 | Messukeskus, Helsinki