Illustrative: plants and ports, the routes between them and goods moving along; one node is disrupted and its routes stall

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry · Department of Industry and Supply Chains

Taught in the Technical stream

Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics

The discipline covers the networks through which goods and strategic inputs move, supplier concentration, chokepoints, geoeconomic fragmentation and sanctions, and how shocks propagate along supply chains.

01Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

  • Supply-chain mapping
  • Supplier concentration
  • Third-party risk management
  • Trade corridors and chokepoints
  • Geoeconomic fragmentation and sanctions
  • Semiconductors and components
  • Responsible sourcing and due diligence
  • Input-output analysis and shock propagation

Courses in development extend the scope to one further subject: Input-output models for shock propagation.

02Maps

Maps and the globe for any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow trade, supply chains and geoeconomics on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).

03Live map

Activity and hazards in the Strait of Malacca

Night-time lights and population, the geography of production and markets, with floods and sea state, over the Strait of Malacca.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Activity and hazards

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Activity and hazards, framed on the Strait of Malacca.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (5 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Sea surface temperature anomaly: GHRSST MUR25, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

04The subject

The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies

The field and its scope

For supply chain, procurement and trade analysts, risk managers responsible for third parties, economists and policy staff who need to map supply networks, measure concentration and chokepoint exposure, and model how shocks propagate through production networks.

05The method

From a single supplier to a lost quarter: time to recover, time to survive and the shock that travels

The share of an input bought from one source and the weeks that source takes to recover set a disruption; the weeks of inventory on hand set how long production survives it; the uncovered weeks become lost output, and the network multiplies that loss downstream; inventory or a second source is the decision.

Sources: Simchi-Levi et al., Identifying risks and mitigating disruptions in the automotive supply chain (2015); Carvalho et al., Supply chain disruptions: evidence from the Great East Japan Earthquake (2021); Acemoglu et al., The network origins of aggregate fluctuations (2012); Baldwin and Freeman, Risks and global supply chains: what we know and what we need to know (2022).

06Instrument

Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics

Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics: 0 primary courses open, 2 in preparation and 4 also taught here, across 8 subtopics and 1 connected discipline. Courses: RAT-220 L2 in preparation, RAT-256 L3 in preparation, RAN-314 L2 also taught here, RAN-315 L2 also taught here, RAS-403 L2 also taught here, RAS-411 L2 also taught here.
Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 2
  • Also taught here, 4
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Trade, supply chains and geoeconomicsRegister
  1. 03CoursesIn preparation
  2. 04LevelsL2 Intermediate
  3. 05LabsNetwork lab, Map lab

Risk Academy · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

07Standards and evidence

Standards and evidence, research and evidence, profile, what is changing and learning

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.

Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.

08Console

How Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics is taught, as a process you can run

Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.

09Practice

Practice, learning and connections

How technology helps and what risk it brings

AspectIn this area
Technology that helpsTraceability and distributed ledgers.
Risk technology createsExposure to chip and export controls, and concentration in critical minerals.
  • RAS-430 Dual-use Technology, Export Controls and Compute Governance In development
  • RAS-416 Critical Minerals and Transition Supply Risk In development
  • RAN-371 Distributed Ledgers and Tokenisation in Finance and Supply Chains In development
10Take part

Take part in Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Start from who you are.

11References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Baldwin, then Christopher, then Simchi-Levi.

12Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is study here free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the courses in trade, supply chains and geoeconomics?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Tier-n supplier

A supplier several steps removed from the buyer in a supply chain.

Term

Single point of failure

A component whose failure stops the whole system.

Term

Geoeconomic fragmentation

The splitting of the world economy into blocs through trade, investment and technology restrictions.

Term

Input-output model

A model of how sectors buy from and sell to each other, used to trace shocks through an economy.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Risk Academy
Trade, supply chains and geoeconomics

Start with an open course

The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.

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Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.