Political violence, strikes, riots, civil war and war are as big a threat to business growth, continuity and profitability as terrorism, according to Aon Risk Solutions.

Launching its 2011 Aon Terrorism and Political Violence map, Aon’s risk management business has this year changed its 10-year-old annually updated map to reflect the new threats to business.

Neil Henderson, Head of Terrorism in Aon Risk Solutions’ crisis management team, says the attacks of September 11 2001 were the genesis for the terrorism threat map, but “the issues that should be of most concern to people and businesses have evolved greatly in the nearly 10 years since”.

“While terrorism remains a very real threat around the world, the reality is that threats to business continuity are also coming from political violence in all its many forms,” he said.

“The change in the way the map is scored should not be seen as a decrease in the incidence or severity of terrorist threats, but rather the fact that it provides businesses with a more inclusive view of some of the risk management issues they are facing around the world.”

This year’s map shows increased risk of political violence in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Civil unrest and labour disputes arising from austerity measures taken after the financial crisis in nations such as Greece, France, Spain and the UK are also included on the map, with terrorism continuing to threaten established conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia as well as parts of Nigeria.

Aon says the threat of occasional acts of international terrorism “remains significant for most Western nations and major powers”.